3Com to Develop Bluetooth for Handhelds, PCs

3Com and Extended Systems have agreed to co-develop Bluetooth solutions for the Microsoft Windows platforms. The companies will cooperate to deliver a complete suite of Bluetooth data management applications, protocol stacks, and hardware adapters to consumers, manufacturers, businesses and OEM customers.

Rick Maule, vice president and general manager of the Mobile Connectivity Division at 3Com said "For early adopting end-users, our collaboration with Extended Systems also provides immediate compatibility and high-quality communications between personal computers enabled by 3Com's Bluetooth offerings and Palm handhelds -- the most pervasive handheld computers on the market."

Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology developed by Ericsson that is expected to appear in a handful of products at the end of this year. However, Micrologic Research's new study "Bluetooth2001" study says that it will be mid- to late-2001 before more than just a few Bluetooth-enabled products are available, and late 2002 before the Bluetooth market begins to take off. But by 2005, worldwide revenues from the shipment of Bluetooth nodes will reach $15 billion.