Bluetooth arrives with more byte
STEVE GOLD, The Guardian
Monday, April 9, 2001
it.mycareer.com.au
The first mobile handsets supporting the Bluetooth wireless personal area network
(PAN), and plug-in adapters for existing handsets, have been available in
Scandinavia for several months.
And while the technology has been almost as overhyped as WAP, the potential
benefits of Bluetooth will be even more profound provided the "killer applications"
arrive in time.
Killer applications are what make the difference between a technology being
life-changing or mundane. A classic example is text messaging, which has made
mobile phone users realise that there's more to their handsets than plain old voice
calls. Bluetooth has the potential to do a lot more than that.
The idea behind Bluetooth is simple make a mobile device capable of
communicating wirelessly at speeds of up to 700kilobits per second (kbps) at
ranges of between 10 and 30 metres, using lower-power radio frequencies.
For the tech-heads out there, Bluetooth operates in the 2.4MHz waveband using
spread spectrum techniques. This means that the chipsets can be cheap,
mass-produced and need only a little power from the host device they are installed
in.
Ericsson would like us all to use Bluetooth.
Late last year, the Swedish company partnered with ICA Ahold, a Swedish retail
chain, to trial the world's first retail Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone service.
Jurgen Wennberg, ICA Ahold's vice-president, says the service to shoppers in the
chain's test store in Tdby, near Stockholm, is amazing.
Using their WAP mobile phones, he says, users can move around the store, check
theiraccount balance, pay for goods at the till using their mobile, and be notified of
the latest in-store offers.
Unlike location-based wireless services, whose accuracy is limited to a few
hundred metres at best, Bluetooth is very short-range, meaning that as shoppers
trundle around the store, they can access department-specific information
services. Customers in the deli section, for example, can be told the offers of the
day via their mobile's screen.
And ICA Ahold can also use the Bluetooth technology to spot its store card
customers, and even segment them according to standard or gold card categories.
"We can send gold card holders quite specific messages, such as special offers for
them," says Wennberg. "The possibilities are endless."
At the till the customer can tell the operator their wishes to pay with their store card
account, using the mobile phone. The till operator hits a button and the transaction
is carried out using the shopper's mobile. Details of the purchases are then relayed
to the mobile phone and, if the shopper agrees, their inputs the PIN code to the
mobile.
Ericsson is also promoting Bluetooth as the route to shopper nirvana outside
stores as users go about their daily travels. The company has developed a version
of Bluetooth called Bluetooth Local Infotainment Point, or Blip.
The idea behind it is that interested parties install a Bluetooth-compliant server,
usually on a stand-alone basis, and then plug it into the Internet.
Users with Bluetooth devices can then access the mobile Internet via their nearest
Blip station, rather than relying on cellular networks.
This is much faster than regular WAP, which works only at 9.6kbps for most
people, and at about 30-40kbps for a minority of users with the latest high-speed
(GPRS) handsets. WAP via Bluetooth, on the other hand, zips along at up to
700kbps, making for very rapid mobile Internet sessions.
The basic Blip platform is a Linux-driven PC in a small system box, which Ericsson
says can be bolted to an advertising hoarding. This allows users to receive more
information on the advert, as well as surfing the mobile Internet at the advertisers'
cost.
The advertisers' costs for a Blip station are relatively low and fixed, since the Blip
terminal can connect to the regular Internet using a cable modem or ADSL
connection. The Bluetooth radio channel usage is free.
Ericsson expects that Blips will take off quickly, once Bluetooth-enabled mobile
phones and other devices become popular.
Peter Lundin, Ericsson's Blip MD, says that the technology introduces a whole new
dimension to mobile networks.
He also expects that within a few years, "blipping" on the move is likely to become
ascommon as Web surfing from the desk is today.
But Ericsson isn't waiting for potential users to beat a path to its door. It has struck
a series of partnerships to ensure that the Blip technology reaches out into the
marketplace.
In the advertisement scenario, the firm says that passers-by could quickly blip
download a discount coupon, and furtherinformation, for the product or service
being promoted, and use their phone to authenticate the discount at a retail outlet.
Don't rush out and look for Blip stations just yet, because Ericsson doesn't expect
the first European stations to be rolled out much before the middle of the year by
which time a sizable number of new mobile phones will be Bluetooth-enabled.
The Guardian |
