Bluejack City
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 ...intense marketing of Centrino and WiFi “hotspots” everywhere from Starbucks to airports and hotels, millions of Americans now know about and use it every day. While technologically different from WiFi, Bluetooth’s supporters hope the technology will bring the benefits of wireless connectivity to mobile phones users everywhere.

Created in 1994 by the Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson, Bluetooth, named for the Danish king who in 950 AD united Denmark and Norway, was a technology that the company hoped would unite the mobile world. Establishing a basic technical concept for the transmission of data across short distances (under 30 feet) via low range, low power radio waves, Ericsson then gave the technology away for free. The company hoped other manufacturers would include it in their products and thereby provide a common standard that could be used to eliminate the need for cables on things like earpieces and cradles for data transfer to and from personal computers.

In 1998, Ericsson joined with five other companies – Nokia, IBM, Toshiba and Intel – to form the Bluetooth special interest group (SIG). In January, the group welcomed its 3,000th member. By the end of last year, industry estimates put the number of Bluetooth-capable products shipping per week at 1 million, and the dream of Bluetooth proponents — a world of mobile electronics and peripherals working together without wires — is beginning to take shape.

With greater Bluetooth awareness and better access to more advanced cell phones from brands including Nokia, SonyEricsson and Siemens, tech-savvy Europeans are the ones bluejacking their neighbors in malls, train stations and even McDonald’s. U.S. wireless carriers lag behind their trans-Atlantic counterparts in the deployment of Bluetooth-capable devices (between 12 and 18 months), but they are taking note of and moving to accommodate growing consumer interest. With wireless phones reaching an estimated 160 million people across the U.S. alone and some 50 million more subscribers projected in the next five years, there is an ample supply of potential users.

“I’d be very surprised if, at the end of this year, there wasn’t a Bluetooth phone available from pretty much every carrier,” said Steve Deutscher, director of product management for Motorola’s companion products. At present, four of the six U.S. cell phone companies offer such devices.