Comments on: Bluetooth Shipments Exceed 1M per Week

I think I'm going to forward this to a pair of hardware designers that refused to work with us three years ago after they said Bluetooth is "not going to make it" and "has too much software running it to make it work well." A shame seeing a technology overwhelm seasoned vets -- even in this field.

Amazing how many board designers out there that scream "If I can't see it in my hands, I'm not working with it!!"

I'm being a cynic... considering
how hard/long it took for them
to sort out the pda+phone+computer
connection, I doubt that it will
work.

Even 2 years ago, the bluetooth numbers were quite impressive, though very people were using bluetooth in the "real" world.

Today, more and more people (including myself) are actually using bluetooth, but the numbers are way hyper-inflated.

Bluetoothless' public relations firms have been working overtime during the past three years, trying to create the illusion that Bluetoothless is the "next big thing" (to borrow a certain Handspring executive's favorite phrase). Perhaps the hope is that if they say Bluetothless is a success enough times, it will really happen. If only the same degree of effort had been spent on making Bluetoothless devices actually work, maybe it would actually be useful by now.

So what does Bluetoothless have to show for itself after all these years?

1) Ridiculously overpriced headsets that make it sound like you're either talking from the bottom of a well or using a couple of tin cans connected by string. The Sony Ericsson HBH-60 is a nice design, but what headset is really worth $150 - $200?

2) Bluetoothless to small PDA (like Palm's T³) for wireless access to email and web anywhere.

And that's about it. Everything else is either vaporware or from the Rube Goldberg School of Design. Very impressive. So now they're shipping "billions and billions" of Bluetoothless-enabled devices every second? Does that include the chips packaged in Bluetoothless Brand bubblegum? How about a breakdown of what products contain those chips and - more importantly - how many are actually being used. Bluetoothless is even less popuplar with non-geek Palm users than that perennial pariah, Mr. Infrared Port.

Of course, if the Treo 600 "issues" aren't cleared up soon, I'll probably be stuck with using a T610/HBH-60/UX-xx combo (the Bluetoothless Unholy Trinity) by default.

Sometimes the truth just isn't pretty™