A colorful celebration: Bluetooth marks 10-year anniversary at Consumer Electronics Show
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 1/7/2008 12:58:00 PM MST
Bluetooth, the technology that spawned a legion of people walking around with metallic devices flashing blue lights poking out of their ears, is 10 years old. And the celebration is taking place at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
While the idea of Bluetooth technology was born more than a decade ago, the first products didn't appear commercially until the year 2000. In that short time—a span of eight years—1.5 billion Bluetooth-enabled devices have been shipped, and the organization behind the technology, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has grown from a handful of companies to 10,000 members.
"The first ten years of Bluetooth development has been amazing to watch," said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director, of the Bluetooth SIG. "From prototypes in 1998 to more than 1.5 billion devices on the market today, no other consumer technology has grown as fast in such a short period of time."
The Bluetooth SIG qualifies Bluetooth products to a set of strict criteria to carry the Bluetooth brand. Since 2000, when products became commercially available, the trade organization has seen a 13-fold increase in the number of products qualified each year. One of those products, the JayBird Bluetooth Stereo Headset, will be introduced this week at CES and the manufacturer, JayBird Gear LLC, will be honored at the Bluetooth SIG 10-year celebration party as the organization's 10,000th member.
Bluetooth technology was named after a Danish king, King Harald Blatand, who had a penchant for snacking on blueberries and was known for uniting warring factions in what is now Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Uniting devices from different manufacturers and with different purposes, like computers from Apple and mice from Microsoft, is what Bluetooth technology is all about—all at a low cost, with low power consumption and a secure connection every time.
Consumer awareness of Bluetooth technology has skyrocketed in recent years. The Bluetooth logo—a runic symbol of King Harald's initials surrounded by a blue oval—has become familiar around the globe. Most people use Bluetooth technology to wirelessly connect mobile phones to headsets or cars; use their mobile phones to transfer pictures, files and other data another phone, PC or printer; or listen to music via Bluetooth enabled mp3 players and stereo headsets.
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