NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: KEITH SHAW ON WIRELESS COMPUTING DEVICES 11/18/04 Today's focus: Bluetooth's supremacy in the smart phone market
Dear [EMAIL PROTECTED], In this issue: * Bluetooth is alive and kicking in the smart phone sector * Links related to Wireless Computing Devices * Featured reader resource _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored By BMC Software Linking IT Priorities to Business Objectives, an IDC whitepaper. Get insights from IDC on aligning business goals and IT priorities. IDC offers practical, actionable information on how Business Service Management can help you reduce operating costs, improve service levels, respond faster to business needs and protect delivery of business-critical. Click here to download this whitepaper now. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=88336 _______________________________________________________________ DOWNLOAD INDUSTRY WHITE PAPERS NOW NW Fusion's White Paper Library is your source for the latest industry white papers. Recent additions to the library include white papers on WLAN Security; IT Documentation; protecting the internal network from worms, Trojan horses, and other malware threats; measuring employee productivity and more. Click here to download: http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=88301 _______________________________________________________________ Today's focus: Bluetooth's supremacy in the smart phone market By Keith Shaw A colleague keeps taunting me whenever I bring up Bluetooth. In his mind, Bluetooth is a nice technology that helps people unwire their headsets from their mobile phone, but that's about it. Any type of actual connectivity for real devices is the job of wireless LAN technologies (also known as Wi-Fi). So I'd be curious to see his reaction to a recent report from ARC Group, which says that shipments of Bluetooth smart phones will reach 87.5 million units - about 70% of the smart phone market - by 2009. This compares to WLAN smart phone shipments, which the group predicts will top out at 18.75 million units by 2009. The report says WLAN technology "does not yet offer an ideal solution for being incorporated into smart phones." The price of building WLAN into a smart phone is still very high, making it harder for carriers to subsidize them and creating a higher price for the end user. WLAN modules are also bulkier than Bluetooth modules, as the WLAN modules include extra components for signal shaping and power amplification, ARC Group says. Embedding a WLAN module into a smart phone that already includes a bulky 2.5G/3G wireless module complicates the design process and results in a larger device, and also affects the device's overall power consumption. The report says smart phones already suffer from high energy drain from the 2.5G/3G wireless modules. Furthermore, putting WLAN into a wireless WAN device is not yet justified, the report says, because WLAN to wireless WAN roaming systems are still in their infancy and service providers need time to adopt the technology. Carriers seem to be waiting to see whether enterprise WLAN adoption and public hot spots are legitimate. "Microsoft and Intel are the main supporters of including WLAN in smart phones, as Microsoft operating systems have already integrated WLAN stacks, and Intel xScale processors come with a WLAN interface," said Malik Saadi, senior analyst with the ARC Group. Some handset vendors have incorporated WLAN into devices, but at the very high end. The technology debate between Bluetooth and WLAN still appears to fall down geographical boundaries. In Europe, and Japan, Bluetooth dominates, while in North America and other parts of Asia Pacific the preference is for WLAN. Like the preference for SMS vs. instant messaging, this could be a debate based on the infrastructure that each population has, and not necessarily a preferred preference of one technology over the other. More details on the ARC Group report, including ordering information, are available at <http://click.cminteractive.com/?10yhmcSR=2248> _______________________________________________________________ To contact: Keith Shaw Keith Shaw is Senior Reviews Editor at Network World. In addition, he writes the " Cool Tools <http://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/cooltools.html> " column, which looks at gizmos, gadgets and other mobile computing devices. You can reach Keith at <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored By BMC Software Linking IT Priorities to Business Objectives, an IDC whitepaper. Get insights from IDC on aligning business goals and IT priorities. IDC offers practical, actionable information on how Business Service Management can help you reduce operating costs, improve service levels, respond faster to business needs and protect delivery of business-critical. Click here to download this whitepaper now. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=88348 _______________________________________________________________ ARCHIVE LINKS Archive of the Wireless Computing Devices (formerly Mobile Computing) newsletter: http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/mobile/index.html _______________________________________________________________ FEATURED READER RESOURCE NW FUSION PARTNERS' SITES NOW AVAILABLE Network World Fusion Partners is a collaborative effort between Network World and sponsoring Partner companies. Each microsite contains best-of-breed information as well as custom content not found anywhere else, including a custom email newsletter and special offers. 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