Bluetooth Looks to Launch Truly Wireless World
VARNEY: A new technology arriving in the marketplace with a promise of greater convenience and fewer wires to tie you down. It's called BlueTooth, and it's getting support from some of the biggest names in tech: Ericsson, IBM, Toshiba, and some 2,000 others. In this "MONEYLINE" special report, Fred Katayama takes a close look at BlueTooth and the changes it could bring.</s>FRED KATAYAMA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We live in a wired world, a tangled sea of electrical octopuses in the office and at home. A new technology could liberate us, connecting us without wires. It's called BlueTooth, named after a Viking king who unified Denmark: 2,000 companies have already joined the kingdom. BlueTooth lets electronic devices talk to each other wirelessly: a radio on a chip that can be added or built into everything from computers to cell phones to VCRs.</s>SKIP BRYAN, ERICSSON: BlueTooth is absolutely one of the most revolutionary things that's hitting the telecom market. It will enable so many new businesses, so many new uses of devices in a much more simple, easy-to-connect fashion than we've ever envisioned before.</s>KATAYAMA: Unlike the infrared beams used in remote controls, BlueTooth transmits voice and data, it penetrates walls, and it covers distances 10 to 100 times farther. BlueTooth technology, for instance, will enable a mother to snap a picture of her child at the park, then connect to a BlueTooth-boosted cell phone, and immediately transmit the image via the Internet to grandma.</s>SIMON ELLIS, INTEL: About five years ago, we really started looking at this, and we considered building cell phones into computers, building other radio technologies, and we didn't find a single technology that would really fit the bill. And that was when we came to the conclusion that we really needed a different technology.</s>KATAYAMA: Ericsson began studying the idea in 1994. Four years later, it teamed with Intel, Nokia, IBM, Toshiba to jointly develop the technology, which it shares for free. The first BlueTooth products will soon hit retail shelves. IBM's PC card that links computers with cell phones will debut in October at $189. Ericsson's wireless headset will come out in the fourth quarter at around $500.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The biggest, or killer application per se, is ear pieces for cell phones where, you know, in several states, for example, we have seen laws passed where drivers of cars are not allowed or permitted to use their cell phones while driving.</s>KATAYAMA: With BlueTooth, computer mice will be tailless . Ericsson researchers are developing this BlueTooth Dick Tracy- like watch, with all the functions of a hand-held computer wirelessly sharing data with a desktop PC. They also have a Palm-like device embedded with global positioning and a BlueTooth phone so you can surf the Web...</s>COMPUTER VOICE: ... online. Connection is now established. Please select new category.</s>KATAYAMA: ... find yourself in Paris on a map, look up a bistro and call in the reservation. In the future, BlueTooth could play Cupid. Two shoppers, each with cell phones programmed with their personal profiles. BlueTooth senses a connection, the phones ring, and a hook-up is made. (on camera): BlueTooth may get around walls, but it faces some hurdles of its own. The first is cost. Adding BlueTooth adds about $25 to $30 to the cost for manufacturers, but those companies hope to get it down to $5 in roughly two years. (voice-over): Another toothache, security.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The biggest problem with BlueTooth is that security as a requirement really isn't there. For ease of use, security was never designed to be within the specification as a requirement.</s>KATAYAMA: Even so, the research firm DataQuest predicts BlueTooth will be put into 30 million cell phones and other consumer devices by the end of next year, but that doesn't include the many new applications that may sprout from a technology that has its roots in radio. Fred Katayama, CNN Financial News, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.</s>VARNEY: Up next, "Ahead of the Curve."