October 8, 2001
Users Overcome Bluetooth Blues
UPS and FedEx embrace the technology, as wireless specifications finally take shape
By L. SCOTT TILLETT
Imagine a world in which people never have to worry about wiring personal digital assistants to desktops to upload or download files. Imagine a world where it's possible to print a fax from a laptop without docking it or plugging it into a wall jack--in short, a world in which cables, wires and cords aren't needed for one device to talk to another.
That world has been slow to materialize. But an emerging set of wireless standards collectively known as Bluetooth appears poised to make it happen.
Bluetooth talk--and Bluetooth R&D--have been prominent since 1998. But it's only in recent months that strong standards and specifications have been finalized and Bluetooth products have emerged. Big businesses such as United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. have started building Bluetooth technology into their enterprises.
Bluetooth works by sending data signals by radio from device to device. The transmitters and receivers can be buried in devices such as PCs, phones, printers or handheld devices, or they might lie on a card that can be plugged into another device.
Bluetooth technology broadcasts data over nearly a 10-meter radius. Observers of the technology caution, therefore, that Bluetooth shouldn't be approached as a substitute for a wireless LAN. Besides the range limitations, the technology lacks such essential elements as administrative tools that a full-blown network would have.
"Bluetooth is not a wireless LAN," said Simon Ellis, chairman of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group marketing group and a manager for Intel's mobile computing marketing group. "The first thing from an IT perspective is what are the appropriate usages and applications. The real application is cable replacement."
Replacing cables might seem mundane. But companies that are planning to use Bluetooth say doing away with hardwire connections adds flexibility, speed, reliability and efficiency.
Take, for instance, the hub operations of a shipping company such as UPS. Today, workers at the UPS distribution point for packages move, manage and track shipments using ring-like scanners worn on their fingers. The scanners are wired to small hip-mounted computers. Each computer later can be plugged into a docking station to upload package information, or can send the data instantly to a network via a wireless LAN connection.
But hubs are physically rugged places, and the cord that connects a ring scanner to the tiny computers can wear out or get tangled. The wires tend to break, a UPS spokesperson said.
UPS is planning a $100 million companywide project that will marry Bluetooth and wireless LANs for package management at its nearly 2,000 hubs and distribution centers. The company this month will begin testing about 50 Bluetooth-enabled scanners and computers at its hub in Buffalo, N.Y. Motorola and subcontractor Symbol Technologies are developing custom Bluetooth devices for UPS, the spokesperson said.
Like UPS, FedEx wants to use Bluetooth-enabled devices at its hubs. The company already has been experimenting with the technology in its administrative offices.
FedEx has installed Bluetooth PC cards and is using a handful of Bluetooth-adapter "sleeves" to fit over PDAs. This enables users to feed calendar information from their PDAs to their PCs, said Ken Pasley, the director of wireless systems development for the company's services unit.
Pasley said he hopes to have Bluetooth devices in distribution centers and in the field--so couriers can communicate cordlessly between their handheld computers and portable printers--sometime next year.
Custom production of Bluetooth devices could be rare. In July, Hewlett-Packard's mobile computing division began building Bluetooth PC cards into products, according to product marketing manager Lara Kahler.
By fall, the HP DeskJet 995C printer should come ready with Bluetooth, she said. Bluetooth-enabled devices such as cell phones or PDAs should be able to work with the printer without having to link, configure and connect devices through a wired network. "I can walk up to any Bluetooth printer; I don't have to carry drivers with me," Kahler said.
The greater telecommunication speeds‹brought by new standards, such as General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)--as well as standards like Bluetooth will make it more attractive for mobile workers to use their cell phones in conjunction with laptops to access corporate networks. An organization can expect as much as a 30 percent productivity gain with its workers who access networks while away from the office, Kahler said.
Building Bluetooth into products could result in higher prices initially. Developers are hoping to get the Bluetooth price point down to about $5 per unit. Right now, it hovers near $20. HP is working on getting its Bluetooth integration costs down to $5, so prices on initial HP Bluetooth products will be bumped up a bit, Kahler said.
The Bluetooth cost curve will be driven down as more products, especially cell phones, incorporate Bluetooth, she said. |
