Bluetooth alive and kicking

Bluetooth chipset shipments are on track to hit 13 million this year, despite adverse market conditions, and are expected to hit 780 million units by 2005.

Shipments this year will double those of 802.11b chipsets, with activity picking up in mobile phones, notebooks and adapters, according to research from Cahners In-Stat Group. It says "misrepresented issues" about the technology have not had an impact on its demand and believes that opportunities in the space are substantial.

On the carrier side, wireless providers are showing interest, as well as evaluating deployment of access points and networks, with Japan, Korea and Europe ahead of the pack in this area.

In November, ARC Group predicted 26.2 million Bluetooth-enabled handsets would be sold next year and generally confirmed that the technology was doing well. This new report continues a long line of "Bluetooth is Great" surveys this year, starting with January's Frost & Sullivan forecast that 11 million Bluetooth units would ship this year.

In separate news, Infineon and Toshiba today announced two key components - a transceiver IC and baseband LSI - that will allow integration of Bluetooth into consumer products with USB and UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter) functionality, such as PCs and notebooks.

The components stem from collaboration between the companies that began in March this year. A complete system solution will be available from early next year. ®

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