[Asterisk-Users] Bluetooth discussions

[Steve Underwood]

Hi Don,

A large number of GSM phones and PDAs now have bluetooth. It looks 
likely that through 2004 the majority of GSM phones anywhere above entry 
level will have Bluetooth. My guess is that this will collapse in 2005, 
and bluetooth will be dead soon after. In the meantime, I don't seem 
many people using the Bluetooth feature they have. The headsets cost 
$100 up, and their battery life is very poor. These have been selling 
for 3 years now, so we are not just seeing the typical high cost of a 
new product. The first generation headsets were over $300. Phone to 
notebook and phone to PDA connectivity seems to be the main use right 
now. However, all those products will soon have 802.11 so the Bluetooth 
feature will be superfluous.

Bluetooth just doesn't do anything very well. Other methods of doing 
cordless headset to phone connectivity offer far better battery life, 
and lower cost. 802.11 is now pretty cheap, much faster, more flexible, 
and it going into everything soon.

Bluetooth prescence sounds like a dead end to me. However, if can work 
for an 802.11 unit it probably has a real future. Anyone with 802.11 in 
their phone can we tracked rather well as they move around.

Disclaimer: The value of predictions can go down as well as up :-)

Regards,
Steve


Don Feuer wrote:

> I have seen a number of phones being made by companies in Korea, but do not
>know much about what has happened to them.  I have seen a host of cellular
>to Bluetooth phones at COMDEX two years ago, and I am a strong proponent of
>Bluetooth.
>
>It would be good if someone is from Korea or can read Korean to make a list
>of companies that manufacture these phones and share them with the
>community.
>  
>