Products featuring the Bluetooth wireless technology are expected to generate worldwide revenue of $US2.5 billion in 2001, according to a new study by the UK branch of Frost & Sullivan. The company predicts that 11 million products using the Bluetooth technology will be sold by the end of this year.
Bluetooth is a standard for short-distance wireless communications, or wireless personal area networks (PANs), which connects devices at speeds of up to 1M-bit/sec over distances up to 10 metres. If the Bluetooth specification 1.1 receives early ratification by the Bluetooth Special Internet Group (SIG), which is expected by the end of this month, there is even more money to be made in 2001, Frost & Sullivan said.
The study's authors also said they are encouraged by talks already under way to develop the Bluetooth specification 1.2.
Although the study acknowledges that the delay in getting products using Bluetooth to market has caused something of a backlash in the media and the industry itself, the combined efforts of the Bluetooth SIG and more than 2,000 companies developing products with Bluetooth will assure the technology's long term success, Frost & Sullivan said.