With every passing month, it seems that more electronic devices are touted as being Bluetooth enabled. And, while many people are excited about the advent of its new products, others are left scratching their heads wondering, "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 it allows phones, computers, PDAs and other electronic devices to easily communicate with the other enabled devices nearby. The range of its networking is limited to a short range of about 30 feet.

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

What is Bluetooth technology mainly used for? The Bluetooth mobile wireless technology has quickly become the standard for all wireless methods of communication. It can now be found integrated into the latest and most popular models of handheld computers, laptops, PDAs, printers and headsets, not to mention cellular phones. Manufacturers are finding more and more products to add the technology to, as the demand for this enhancement increases.

In addition to the Bluetooth wireless phone models, which are probably the most prevalent type of devices on the market, you can now also find its headphones and 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 its enabled devices function on a standard protocol. This means that all transmission of data and voice signals between two of its 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 it 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 devices alike 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.

This technology has been on the market for almost a decade. One of the reasons it is relatively inexpensive and widely used is because the original developer, Ericsson, has made the specifications royalty-free so manufacturers do not have to pay to implement the technology in their devices.