Air bus

While USB On-The-Go (USB OTG) may be perceived as a competitor to Bluetooth wireless technology, the two short-range connection schemes address completely different problems.

Bluetooth wireless technology fills a much wider range of consumer needs than USB OTG. And it does so without the clutter of cables. USB OTG makes sense for devices where high bandwidth is a requirement, such as a camcorder from which images need to be transferred to a computer or other fixed storage. Bluetooth, by contrast, fits applications that don't need more than the 1 Mbit/sec of bandwidth that Bluetooth offers. These include talking on a cellular phone with a wireless headset, syncing a PDA to a laptop without cradling the PDA, and sending digital photos from a camera-phone to a printer.

Added to the convenience of functionality without cables, Bluetooth also offers extremely low battery consumption (measured in microamps most of the time), chipset prices below $4, and support for simultaneous voice and data. USB OTG does not support voice and does require a cable.

Another much-talked about wireless technology on the market, IEEE 802.11b, connects laptops to fixed networks without cables, but excels in a relatively limited usage scenario tied to the PC. Bluetooth looks beyond laptop connectivity to the huge potential inherent in connecting all portable mobile devices.

Here are some examples of applications where Bluetooth is the only technology that delivers both convenience and ease-of-use:

• Connecting computers and PDAs to the Internet via the mobile phone everywhere, not just in limited "hotspots"
• Connecting wireless headsets to mobile phones or music devices
• Peer-to-peer and network gaming with mobile gaming consoles
• Hands-free and in-car entertainment systems
• Synchronizing data in all calendars and address books (PC, phone, PDA)
• Sending digital images from cameras and camera-phones to TVs and printers.

Bluetooth also delivers benefits in the corporate environment by enhancing productivity. Road warriors and sales people can have instant access to stock info and customer data via Bluetooth-enabled PDAs and portable computers that access the network via Bluetooth phones. And because of the high security level built into the link layer, Bluetooth provides a high degree of protection for sensitive data, unlike some other technologies.

Finally, Bluetooth enjoys huge industry support. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has more than 2000 member companies and has worked with the industry from day one to define how devices should interoperate. More than 20 test facilities around the globe qualify Bluetooth devices under SIG guidelines. Most industry analysts foresee a bright future for Bluetooth. They expect more than 100 million units to ship this year, and that number will continue to grow.

See also: Bus in motion