Is Bluetooth dead in the water? Not if you believe ABI Research, which predicts that vendors will ship more than 500 million Bluetooth radios this year. In a study entitled "Bluetooth: The Global Outlook," the consulting company predicts that sales of Bluetooth-equipped devices will grow 71% this year compared with 2005 and will reach the 1 billion-unit mark by 2009. Stuart Carlaw, principal analyst for wireless connectivity at ABI, explains that the mobile-handset and entertainment markets are powering the robust growth in Bluetooth.
India has more than 120 Bluetooth SIG (special-interest-group) members, many of which are developing products and IP (intellectual property). Bangalore-based MindTree Consulting has integrated Bluetooth into GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) phones for NEC. An NEC chip allows the company's handsets to function as wireless modems and connect to printers. Vinod Deshmukh, vice president of R&D services at MindTree Consulting, says, "Designing high-performance applications for power-conscious portable devices is challenging. We had to develop many in-house tools, including FPGA-based validation boards, radio-channel models, and Bluetooth-protocol-tester hardware and software to accomplish this design. In fact, we are now licensing Bluetooth testing hardware and software."
K Srikrishna, chief executive officer of Impulsesoft, a design company in Bangalore, agrees: "We see the automotive and cellular markets as key areas of growth for Bluetooth stereo," he says. "Voice, including mobile-phone and monophonic headsets, and stereo applications will coexist, coupled with superior user experience." Impulsesoft is driving one such effort and has proposed extensions to the existing standard. Code-named GMCP (generic media-control profile), it provides a standards-based way to remotely navigate and display the playlist over Bluetooth. Impulsesoft, which SiRF Technology Holdings recently acquired, specializes in developing Bluetooth-audio products for OEMs producing digital-media players, mobile phones, and automotive electronics.
Commenting on the suitability of Bluetooth for high-bandwidth applications, such as data transfer and media streaming, Nitin Pai, head of marketing at Tata Elxsi Ltd, points out, "Fundamentally, Bluetooth uses a very-low-bandwidth channel in the ISM [industrial/scientific/medical] band across short distances. This approach precludes it from catering to high-bandwidth applications. Also, ISM bands are nonlicensed and may be cluttered with interference from appliances, such as microwave ovens and cordless phones." K Krishna Moorthy, director of the India Design Center at National Semiconductor India Designs Pvt Ltd, admits, "Bluetooth is in a sort of no-man's land. Although the audio-entertainment industry continues to support Bluetooth, newer systems may adopt 802.11 for both audio and video."
ABI's Carlaw also cautions that there are significant barriers in the way of outright success for Bluetooth, particularly among silicon providers and manufacturers. Among them are resolution of the battle of UWB (ultrawideband) standards and interoperability, reduction in silicon and equipment costs, and penetration into consumer devices. Proponents of the technology hope that the version of Bluetooth after Lisbon, code-named Seattle, will sway the undecided; Seattle will firmly align the technology with UWB. "The best hope for Bluetooth is not to try to be all things to all people but to strive for areas in which it performs well and for strong coexistence with its rivals. Integrating multiple radios into relatively compact, low-power devices, such as handsets, can fulfill this hope. Bluetooth does not have to win a head-to-head battle," observes Rajeev Dutt, North America manager for Asia Silicon Interfaces.