3Com has announced the worldwide availability of its Bluetooth 1.1-compliant PC card, which it positions as a step in enabling wireless connectivity for personal devices. The card allows mobile users to instantly share data files, text documents and contact lists among Bluetooth-enabled personal devices, including notebooks, desktop PCs, cell phones and handhelds. It has to be easy for people to use. 3Com is certainly promising that. Yes, Bluetooth's arrival has been a glacial advance.
Ice ages arrive slowly, too, but they change everything.
While 3Com's spokesperson would not predict cataclysmic climate change from Bluetooth, he did foresee creeping availability. But by Christmas 2002, you'll see a tremendous amount of Bluetooth-enabled products. You probably won't be able to buy a mobile phone without it being Bluetooth-enabled. A new report from analyst firm Ovum seems to agree, stating that, media sensation aside, the standard is in a slow, dull building stage. The immediate future of Bluetooth involves some much-needed, although unexciting, connectivity applications.