Bluetooth technology continues to develop and evolve into many network and communication systems. Discuss the areas of future development of this technology and provide evidence of research to support your viewpoints from a wide range of sources. In 1995 a group of Ericsson engineers got together and created a new wireless technology known as Bluetooth. The name 'Bluetooth' comes from "Harald Blatand (Bluetooth) a century Danish king (940-81) who reunited much of Scandinavia after a series of bloody wars". (Giussani, 2001, Pg 64).
During Ericssons' development into the technology it was found that in order to develop the technology into a useable wireless technological they must join forces with other companies. In 1998 Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia and Toshiba joined together to develop and market Bluetooth as wireless technology to transfer data between computers and cellular phones.Wireless technology has been around for many years in different types of forms. For many people they think of Bluetooth as being a new technology, "However just brace yourselves and prepare for the shock: there is absolutely no difference between radio and wireless except the spelling."(Dudbendorf, 2003) Bluetooth is the name of a technology that uses short wave radio signals to transmit voice and data between devices within a 10metre radius.
When released the aim of Bluetooth was to meet the needs that other applications were not able to meet. Giussani (2001, Pg 64) describes Bluetooth as "simple and cheap enough to let just about any device connect wirelessly to anything else: computers to scanners, mobile phones to earpieces, hand held devices to printers, digital cameras to laptops".Bluetooth has come on a long way since it first came to market so far it has hit the targets and specifications that it aimed to meet by this time. It was thought that Bluetooth would "answer all our communication problems, whether it is in the office, car or home. Three years later some truly valuable Bluetooth business applications are being bought to market.
" (Ostergaard, 2002) With this wireless technology there are more competitors appearing on the market that are becoming bigger competitors such as IEEE 802.11, WI FI and UWB (UltraWideband). "IEEE 802.11, allows transmission rates ten times faster than Bluetooth, and up to distances of 300 feet (Poynder, 2001) and "UWB is capable of transferring at speeds of between 400 and 500 mbps (megabits per second) over relatively short distances (about 15 feet)" (Spooner, 2002).Bluetooth has a range of 33ft and offers data transmission twenty times the speed of a normal dial up modem. They all offer wireless connections between applications and have greater transmission rates.
To some this may seem as though Bluetooth has had its day in the market that is reaching the end before it has even begun but this is very wrong. "the fact is that Bluetooth will have this portable market to itself for many years to come". (Angelseye, 2000) Bluetooth has a large future ahead.In the past new technology may have taken a few years to become widely used, mainly people are defiant that it will not work as well as the previous technology and reluctant to change.
When you look at the products today they and how they have changed and adapted into the market today many people do not even realise they were a new technology. If you look at Vinyl records, Tape Cassettes and Video Tapes this was the technology of yesterday that has been replaced by Compact Discs, MP3s' and DVDs. There is still a small section of demand for the old technology but over the years the market has changed and there is an astonishing demand for the new technology rather than the old. This is the same when looking at mobile phones, over time the new technology will go from becoming the new to becoming the present, as many of us know and use in our everyday lives.The future of Bluetooth can obviously not be told but with the evidence that is available it is possible to predict the path it could follow.
The technology employed by Bluetooth can help in many different professions to make work and life a lot easier. Bluetooth devices constantly scan the surrounding 10-metre range with which they can communicate. "When two devices find each other, they exchange information about identification and access privileges, and then establish a connection". (Guissani,2001, Pg 64) Although this is only available in a few products to date there is evidence to show that much research is being done to try and make Bluetooth the new communication tool, "Every forecaster predicts about one billion Bluetooth-enabled devices to be in the market by 2005(Giussani,2001 pg 66)To enable such a technology to hit the market and in so many areas it was important and necessary for Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia and Toshiba to join forces. They are all very large companies with many different products in the market these products are key to the development of Bluetooth.
To enable Bluetooth to grow to be the future leader of communication then it must be available through a wide range of products, to look at the basic side of it to transfer data between a Mobile Phone and a Personal Computer both must incorporate the hardware and software needed to perform such a task.Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia and Toshiba are all very large companies within the Mobile Phone and Computer Industry and by working together they are able to produce a new product/service that is available to a large market. With the development of Bluetooth the members involved have also grown, this is because they see the technology and the opportunities involved and what an advantage it will be to be involved in such a technology. New members include Egere, Microsoft, Motorola and hundreds of Associate and Adopter member companies.
By having so many companies involved in the development of Bluetooth it has all the backing needed to expand.
