Rapid growth of Bluetooth-enabled products will occur
sooner rather than later, a new study released Monday
by Frost & Sullivan claims.
The study said that more than 11 million
Bluetooth-enabled products will be shipped this year
with a value of $2.5 billion. Bluetooth is a short-range
wireless technology for connecting devices. And the
future looks even brighter, according to the analyst
who wrote the report.
“The Bluetooth arena is expected to enjoy even greater
profit streams if the Bluetooth 1.1 specification gets an
early ratification,” said Michael Wall, research analyst at
Frost & Sullivan.
The study notes that the hype that surrounded
Bluetooth has become part of a “vicious cycle in which
expectations are continually being raised.” That
constant raising to expectations has caused Bluetooth
to evolve from a simple cable replacement technology
toward something that approaches the complexity of
wireless local area networks. That has caused delay and backlash within the
industry, the report notes.
However, Wall notes that Bluetooth technology has been in its “infancy,” and
impatient observers should have taken that into account. Other wireless
technologies took even longer to achieve success, he claimed.
However, he noted that 2,000 companies are part of the Bluetooth Special
Interest Group and that Bluetooth-enabled products are starting to come to
market. In addition, more products from high visibility vendors such as
Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia will start to ship in 2001, the report notes.
Those products, however, initially will be limited to wireless phone headsets
and PC peripherals, with a wider variety of products coming later.