Bluetooth Blues

I was first introduced to Bluetooth technology in either 1997 or 1998.  It seemed like a pretty reasonable idea and the advocate presenting the technology was fervent in his belief that this technology would be the next big thing.

We're now mid way through 2006 - pushing towards a decade later - and where is Bluetooth today?  It remains an under used nebulous technology that refuses to gain a critical mass of acceptance - despite its prevalence in most modern mobile phones of today.  I think there are a few explanations for this disappointing result of a promising technology.

I think one of the major reasons Bluetooth usage has refused to fly has a lot to do with quality.  I’m on my third Nokia cel lphone with Bluetooth support, and I’m STILL anxiously awaiting a bug free implementation that lets me do something as simple as use a wireless headset.  Previous versions refused to connect (at times), refused to remain connected (at times), and refused to power off the transceiver (at times).  Nokia has a very high quality standard for their products, but frankly my experience with their Bluetooth implementations have been nothing short of bitter disappointment.  In truth if I weren’t such a propeller head, I simply wouldn’t put up with such a buggy technology.

Another reason has been a confusing process of making paired Bluetooth devices to actually work.  When I upgraded my mobile handset a year ago, I spent an entire day trying to figure out how to pair my new handset with my Bluetooth carkit.  It’s fine to say that information is in the car kit manual, but let’s be serious:  who happens to have their manual for their car kit lying around two years after the fact?  And why should I have to hang on to a manual for something as simple as a car kit?  It’s not like I needed it for my old wired car kit.

Getting my Bluetooth phone to work with my Bluetooth enabled laptop was nothing short of anguish and angst.  Even after I managed to get it working, it refused to connect reliably.  I’d fumble hopelessly between a stubbornly dormant handset and an equally timid laptop with the only sign of life a briefly winking blue light on a funny dongle.  In the end, I gave up and went back to the cable – piece of cake.

And that I think is a big part of the problem.   A piece of wire has such a positive feel to the whole thing.  When you plug a wire between two pieces of gear, you naturally expect them to work.  Bluetooth is just sort of supposed to be there.  You’re never really sure if your “connected”, or “talking”, or “incommunicado”, or whatever other silly quasi-technical term you can think of you.  If you’re replacing a simple piece of wire with something that’s invisible, you’d better make sure I know when those devices are actually talking to each other.

I’ve become convinced as a wire replacement technology Bluetooth is pretty well dead.  After 8 years of playing with this stuff, I’ve yet to see a Bluetooth implementation beat the simplicity and reliability of a couple strands of copper and aluminum.  But that doesn’t mean I’ve given up on Bluetooth altogether.

I think the opportunity for Bluetooth lies in the domain where wires are just impractical and cellular data just too expensive.  And this fits nicely into the Mobile MUSE vision of context aware services.

A large part of context involves where you are.  And Bluetooth by definition provides a pretty high-resolution locale.  And more importantly, the Bluetooth protocol has been designed to facilitate push content relatively simply.  This is not the case for traditional cellular data for example.  So I see a real opportunity for Bluetooth base local broadcasting of push content tuned to a mobile users context.  Some obvious examples include:

1. Bluetooth broadcast film trailers at a multi-screen cinema.  These trailers can be pushed directly to mobile hanset users to get information and content relative to the movies being played at that time.
2. Bluetooth delivered calendar entries in places like doctors or dentist offices.  Rather than book an appointment, write that on a card, where you may or may not bring it home to your PC to mark it in your calendar, why not use Bluetooth to push a new calendar entry to your handset?
3. Localized versions of dating sites.  With Bluetooth, profiles and interests can be programmed in your mobile device and broadcast with a social scene.  In parallel, the device could be looking for matching profiles within the locale.  An application could be invoked to engage in instant messaging sessions with matching profile owners, or setup calls to arrange face to face contacts.

There are lots of others, but the thing about these examples, is they don’t map very well at all to a tethered connection model and they don’t adapt well to cellular data that lacks the notion of locale.

So in spite of the fact Bluetooth continues to experience birthing blues and I personally continue to struggle with the technology, I remain decidedly optimistic about this technology.  Working in the Mobile MUSE research environment, I'm hopeful that we'll be able to push some of these ideas in delivering interesting context aware applications and services.  And ultimately, I’m confident that one day, my Bluetooth blues will become sunshine bright.