Rapid growth of Bluetooth-enabled products will occur sooner rather than later, a new study released Monday by Frost & Sullivan claims.

The San Jose-based research firm says that more than 11 million Bluetooth-enabled products will be shipped this year, with a total estimated value of $2.5 billion. Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology for connecting devices.

"The Bluetooth arena is expected to enjoy even greater profit streams if the Bluetooth 1.1 specification gets an early ratification," says Michael Wall, research analyst at Frost & Sullivan,

The study also notes that hype surrounding Bluetooth has become part of a "viscous cycle in which expectations are continually being raised." This constant raising, however, has caused Bluetooth to evolve from a simple cable replacement technology towards something that approaches the complexity of wireless local area networks.

Which in turn has caused delay and backlash within the industry, the report notes.

However, Wall describes Bluetooth technology as still being in its infancy, and chastises impatient observers who failed to take that into account, especially since other wireless technologies have taken considerable time achieving success.

Yet thanks to the roughly 2,000 companies that are part of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, many of which are big name players in the wireless space, Bluetooth-enabled products are starting to come to market. Despite the fact that they will initially be limited to wireless phone headsets and PC peripherals, Wall reports that more products from high visibility vendors like Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia will start to ship in 2001 as well.

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