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History of Bluetooth – King Bluetooth

January 25, 2010 by Gadget  
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History of Bluetooth – King Bluetooth

The name Bluetooth and its world-recognised logo are trademarked by the privately held trade association Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG); a privately held, not-for-profit trade association which aims to engender co-operation between companies looking to implement Bluetooth technology into their products and services, including Bluetooth headsets.

Origins of the Bluetooth Name

Bluetooth” has its origins in the name of a 10th century Danish monarch King Harald Blåtand who reigned from approximately A.D. 940 to 985. The name Blåtand translates in English that of Bluetooth. King Bluetooth had fostered a reputation as a leader to unite Scandinavian Europe during an era when the region was torn apart by disagreements between various factions and settlements.

The Bluetooth SIG felt the name an appropriate one because Bluetooth technology was first developed in Scandinavia and its purpose was to unite different industries as King Bluetooth had united Scandanavia.

Founders

The Bluetooth SIG includes member companies such as the global giants Microsoft and Intel and is supplemented by its thousands of Associate member companies.

When Bluetooth was officially introduced in 1998, it was intended to be a wire replacement technology in order to rapidly transfer voice and data. Due to the ground-breaking nature of Bluetooth, cynics within the industry believed Bluetooth would be a distant memory in just a couple of years. However, a decade has passed and Bluetooth continues to evolve. It is hard to walk down the high street without seeing several Bluetooth headsets in action. Much has changed since the first Bluetooth was introduced in 1998 and with the release of Bluetooth 3.0 there will have been six versions in all as Bluetooth technology continues to take giant strides forward.

Bluetooth in the New Millennium

Devices using version 2.0 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) began to hit the market in late 2005. According to the 2.0 specification, EDR provides three times faster transmission speed — up to 10 times in certain cases (up to 2.1 Mbit/s), lower power consumption and a more available bandwidth. In 2003, the Bluetooth SIG began a major overhaul of the Bluetooth specification, to be released in 2007, with the announcement of version 2.1. Improvements included a better standard of filtering when looking for other devices — particularly important in Bluetooth headsets, together with reduced power consumption and an increased level of security to allay increasing fears that Bluetooth technology too readily allowed other users access to personal devices and information.

Bluetooth Today

2008 marked a milestone in Bluetooth technology’s history – no other wireless technology can boast having shipped nearly 2 Billion products in 10 years. The Bluetooth SIG has now welcomed its 10,000th member; remarkable considering it was founded with just five companies in 1998. The latest version of Bluetooth, Bluetooth 3.0 retains many of the same features as 2.1, but is most notable for plans to adopt ultra-wideband (UWB) radio technology. This will allow Bluetooth use over UWB radio, enabling very fast data transfer rates of up to 480 Mbit/s.

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