What is Bluetooth Technology?

Almost daily there are new models of electronics that advertise that they are Bluetooth enhanced. Many people are excited to see this technology take off and become more common, while others are still not quite up to speed about it and are left asking, "What is Bluetooth?"

Bluetooth mobile wireless technology has become one of the leading technologies for wireless communication world wide. The reason it has become so popular around the globe, in just a few short years since its introduction, is because Bluetooth technology allows phones, computers, PDAs and other electronic devices to easily communicate with the other Bluetooth enabled devices nearby. The range of Bluetooth wireless technology networking is limited to a short range of about 30 feet.

Bluetooth utilizes radio waves, in the non-licensed range of 2.4 Gigahertz. The Bluetooth wireless system has been designed with the intention of providing a secure and an inexpensive way to connect with and exchange information between other Bluetooth devices, all without the need of wires.

What is Bluetooth used for? The Bluetooth technology is now found in most of the newest models of cellular phones, virtually all handheld computers and PDAs, many models of laptop computers, some models of printers and virtually all types of wireless cell phone headsets. These are just a few of the current electronic devices that incorporate the technology and more products are being introduced all the time.

In addition to the Bluetooth wireless phone models, which are probably the most prevalent type of Bluetooth devices on the market, you can now also find Bluetooth wireless headphones and Bluetooth wireless speakers.

It is expected that other Bluetooth wireless audio and video products will continue to be brought to the marketplace. With this type of advancement, it is conceivable that some day the only wires you will need to tame, will be the power cords that some of these devices will need for their power supply.

That would be a welcomed change from the tangles of cords and wires that are common in home offices and entertainment areas.

One of the best features, is that all Bluetooth enabled devices function on a standard protocol. This means that all transmission of data and voice signals between two Bluetooth devices, even if they are produced by different manufacturers, is straightforward and simple to implement.

It was the need for a standardized communication convention that prompted the development of Bluetooth technology. Rather than the need for each manufacturer to establish their own standards, and thereby limit the connectivity to other devices made by the same company, they can simply implement the Bluetooth wireless technology networking standard. This simple approach has made Bluetooth a global solution used by all manufacturers and benefiting the end-user significantly.

Some of the other advantages of Bluetooth are: data transfers that are fast; communication with other Bluetooth devices that are not in a direct line of sight (as required by the infra-red protocol); inexpensive circuitry and components; the ability to transmit both data and voice concurrently.

It has been almost a decade since Bluetooth mobile wireless technology was first used in electronics. One reason that is has become so widely used is because the developer of the technology, Ericsson, made the specifications freely available to other manufacturers.

This allowed them to use the technology royalty-free and to keep the cost down. This will continue to be a factor that will fuel the increased usage, making more Bluetooth enabled devices available and essentially squelching the need to ask, "What is Bluetooth?"