Motorola to Release Products
That Use Bluetooth Technology
By NICOLE HARRIS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 12, 2000
Motorola Inc. plans to unveil Monday the first of several new products using the much-hyped Bluetooth wireless technology.
Bluetooth is a standard for short-range wireless connections among all sorts of electronic devices, from laptops and cell phones to microwaves and blenders. The idea is to let these devices seamlessly transmit information to each other so that, say, a phone might ring when a computer has an e-mail or when a meal is ready in the oven.
Company profile: Motorola
Issue Briefing: The Wireless Web
The technology is backed by a group of major electronics and communications companies such as Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson, 3Com Corp., International Business Machines Corp. and Motorola. IBM has already announced plans to integrate Bluetooth into all of its product lines, while Toshiba Corp. plans to ship Bluetooth-equipped laptop computers.
Motorola is gunning for a large share of the Bluetooth market. The Schaumburg, Ill., electronics giant plans to manufacture chip sets for the technology, and develop Bluetooth-enabled devices such as cell phones, two-way pagers and handheld computers. The company also plans to create applications for the technology and provide software developers with tool kits to develop the systems.
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Wireless Wonder
Name: Bluetooth
What it is: A tiny, low-cost unit, built into laptops, mobile phones and other wireless devices that emits simple radio signals in short range for wireless networking.
Who's involved: 1,700 companies worldwide including International Business Machines, Dell Computer, Toshiba, Nokia and Telefon AB L.M.Ericsson
Distribution: Manufacturers are expected to ship more than 1.7 billion devices per year by 2005*
Projected market: $3.4 billion*
*Merrill Lynch projection.
Source: WSJ research
interactive.wsj.com
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3.4B in 2005 seems low.
Jack |
