Bluetooth Wireless Products Reach Market in Japan
April 9, 2001 (TOKYO) -- A wide range of new products featuring Bluetooth wireless capabilities are reaching the market in Japan.
Major computer makers are launching new notebook PC models that sport built-in Bluetooth modules, for example, and Bluetooth
adapters for use with printers, projectors, PHS phones and other devices are appearing.
However, using these Bluetooth products in the office requires that users be cautious about compatibility between devices,
especially if the products are from different manufacturers. Also, users must be careful about the interference problem of the
Bluetooth's wireless signals with those of nearby wireless LANs.
Fujitsu, Others Popularize Bluetooth Devices
Fujitsu Ltd. set off the stampede to launch new Bluetooth products. The company was well
ahead of the field when it started shipping a Bluetooth-equipped notebook PC in December 2000.
Fujitsu released its second Bluetooth notebook model (see photo left) in February.
Also in February, Sony Corp. entered the fray by launching a Bluetooth notebook PC. With
Bluetooth, users of those PCs are now able to share works such as editing of documents and
circulate presentation materials without linking the PCs via LAN cables.
Mobile phone handsets with Bluetooth functions will be
available soon. DDI Pocket Inc. and Omron Corp. have
announced that they are working together to develop a
dedicated adapter (see photo right) to allow PHS phones to exchange data via Bluetooth.
Shipments of the adapter, the companies say, are scheduled to begin in April or May. Users who
carry a Bluetooth-compatible notebook PC will be able to view data that someone has sent to their
phone without taking the phone out of their briefcase or shirt pocket. Cell phones also will benefit
from Bluetooth functions in the latter half of the year.
Bluetooth to Be Used in PC Peripherals
Makers of PC peripheral devices are starting to prepare for Bluetooth.
NEC Corp. and Canon Inc. are launching sales of dedicated adapters (photo of Canon's printer and Bluetooth adapter, below) that
will make their printers compatible with Bluetooth. NEC's shipments began in February, while Canon's will begin in April. Toshiba
Corp. began shipping a dedicated Bluetooth adapter for use with its office projector products at the end of March.
Compared with mobile phones, Bluetooth compatibility is still lagging for personal digital
assistant (PDA) devices. U.S.-based Palm Computing Inc. has said that it intends to develop
and market Bluetooth-equipped PDAs, but shipments are scheduled for 2002 or even 2003.
Sharp Corp., maker of the Zaurus series of PDAs, has not announced plans to offer any
Bluetooth-compatible models.
The "i-Point" portable viewer from Fujitsu (device on the left of the first photo) is the only
portable-sized device with a Bluetooth capability. The company has been selling the i-Point
viewer alone, but from February it also started supplying the device packaged with its new
Bluetooth notebook PC. With the wireless link using Bluetooth between the two devices, people who purchased the PC are be able
to view data stored in the PC, e-mail messages, and other items, on the i-Point unit. The i-Point can be used as a mouse for the PC.
Cautious Approach for Adoption of Bluetooth for Corporate Systems
Some problems surrounding Bluetooth -- incompatibility between different devices, interference with wireless LANs, and the cost
of introducing the technology -- are still waiting for solutions. For this reason, major manufacturers such as Sony, Fujitsu and NEC
are now targeting the consumer market, rather than business users, for those problems are less severe for home users than for
enterprise users.
The biggest problem, that of incompatibility, means that there is no guarantee that two different Bluetooth products -- especially
devices made by different manufacturers -- will be able to exchange data with each other. Later this summer when new products that
use a new set of Bluetooth standards start appearing, in some cases even two devices made by the same manufacturer may turn out
to be incompatible if they were developed in different versions of the technology.
Already, two versions of Bluetooth exist, with the third to start appearing soon.
Current Bluetooth products developed by Toshiba, IBM Japan Ltd., and NEC all use Bluetooth version 1.0b, the original standards,
while those from Fujitsu and Sony all employ Bluetooth version 1.0b+CE, an upgraded version. However, the two versions are
incapable of communicating with each other. Moreover, many cases are seen in which even products developed using the same
version of Bluetooth have turned out to be incompatible because of the ways in which different manufacturers have chosen to
interpret the standards. A certain PC maker has backed this up by saying that if Bluetooth's encryption functions are used, then the
devices become incompatible, even if they employ the same version of the technology.
Products to go on sale from around June will use Bluetooth version 1.1, the standardization of which was finalized in February.
With the introduction of version 1.1 it seems that the situation is going to become more complicated. Two different devices, one
developed with the new version 1.1 and the other with either of the two existing versions, will be incompatible even if the same
maker manufactured both products. For example, the Bluetooth PC cards that Toshiba is marketing now employ version 1.0b and
the company is to start shipping version 1.1 PC cards in June or July, but two PCs fitted with the cards - one with version 1.0b and
one with version 1.1 - will not be able to exchange data with each other. To solve the problem, the company says it will offer
dedicated software that makes version 1.0b cards compatible with version 1.1 via its Internet home page.
No solution is in sight for the problem of Bluetooth signals interfering with wireless LANs that use the same 2.4GHz waveband. If
Bluetooth products are used in the vicinity of such LAN, then both connections' data transmission speeds will be reduced, and
communication may become impossible.
Problem of High Costs to Be Solved Gradually
Users seeking to make their PCs compatible with Bluetooth need to buy a new PC card, which will cost at least 18,000 yen. (124.18
yen = US$1) Likewise, new notebook PCs with built-in Bluetooth modules are considerably more expensive than similar
non-Bluetooth models. The reason is that it costs manufacturers around 6,000 yen per device for the necessary Bluetooth module --
which features special Bluetooth microchips -- and to develop the new software. On top of that, they say, is the additional cost of
the antennas for sending and receiving the wireless signals.
However, the cost problem is heading for a solution. A PC maker said that toward the end of 2002 costs should come down as
semiconductor makers achieve higher levels of chip integration, so that the cost of Bluetooth hardware, including the antenna, will
be reduced to around 1,000 yen per product. At that time, the cost issue will no longer be a major factor. |
