Will Bluetooth Be Bumped?

Thanks to cellular, Bluetooth finally saw the fruits of its labor this year as it gained market penetration in 2003. But will its claim in wireless hold out or run dry in as other wireless platforms, like Ultra Wideband (UWB) and wireless LAN, lay stakes in 2004?

"If you look at the number

of Bluetooth enabled products and Bluetooth enabled chipsets, Bluetooth is clearly the leader," Scott Smyser, a senior analyst at iSuppli Corp., said, comparing it to UWB. "Ultra Wideband hasn't penetrated the market yet and won't start penetrating the market until next year."

Smyser estimates Bluetooth shipped 110 million products this year. UWB, meanwhile, shipped zero products, he said, noting that only Motorola has UWB technology through its acquisition of XtremeSpectrum in November.

"[UWB] is one area where there is a lot of interest from our customer base, trying to take products out to market that enable that," said Omid Tahernia, VP and GM of Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector's wireless and mobile systems division. "The evolution of the UWB and XtremeSpectrum acquisition and implementation of UWB provides 114Mbits/sec. data rate. By the end of 2004, we're looking to take that to the next generation, which will be capable of 500Mbits/sec. data rates."

While Motorola is pushing ahead, UWB's specification has yet to be nailed down. Motorola, which is choosing to stand on its own, faces the MultiBand OFDM Alliance (MBOA), which includes the likes of Intel, Nokia, Samsung and TI.

"Given that most of these companies are supporting this OFDM-based fi [frequency], I think that's the one that will win out or at least Motorola's fi may be a secondary fi," Smyser said.

MBOA is in its testing process now and plans on shipping silicon next year. "UWB has some good backing right now," he added. "UWB is definitely going to get some traction starting next year."

So what will that mean for Bluetooth? Coexistence, for now.

"Bluetooth is starting to become pervasive in handsets. The wireless technologies will take a bit of time to become pervasive," Tahernia said. "UWB is new and at the same time occupies a certain space that I'm not sure will overlap Bluetooth."

Smyser expects UWB to take hold in multimedia applications that need higher data rates, while Bluetooth fits in better with  low speed, low data cable replacement in mobile terminals.

Still,  Bluetooth faces other competitors. Wireless LAN, which caught on strong this year thanks to Intel's Centrino launch http://www.reed-electronics.com/electronicnews/article/CA283344?, could force Bluetooth out of its niche cellular market.

"There was a window where if [Bluetooth] had taken off two years sooner than it did, I think it would have taken off a lot faster than it did," Carl Brasek, product marketing engineer for Cypress' interface products division, said of the technology's stalled launch. "Now we're seeing wireless LAN get cheap enough that you really need to think about whether you want to put a Bluetooth chip in there or use wireless LAN radios. Some companies may use both, but then what are you using Bluetooth for?"

Brasek puts UWB three of four years out and sees WLAN as a worthy challenger to Bluetooth's key markets.

"I do think wireless LAN has a real shot at PDAs and cell phones. Once it does that, there really becomes less of a reason to have Bluetooth radio."