Out go the wires and the mess. The beauty of Bluetooth is that it is fast and does not require line of sight between devices to work. Mobile devices don't even have to be in the same room Messy wires and complicated connections between consumer electronic devices like cellphones and hand-held computers will be a thing of the past when a new wireless technology is introduced in the next few months. Bluetooth replaces cables and infrared as a means of sending data between anything from printers and cellphones to mobile computers and portable hands-free headsets. As you walk past your PC, the phone will automatically download any new numbers into your address book and upload any new appointments.
Wireless technology is one of the fastest-growing areas of business.
Research firm Dataquest says there were 400 million cellphones in use worldwide last year. By 2004, the organisation expects the number to more than double to one billion. The move to wireless technology is happening staggeringly fast, says Calum Chisholm, channel business manager at Intel South Africa. It took us 12 years from 1988 to 2000 to reach sales of one billion flash chips, processors used in mobile devices. We will reach our second billion by 2002.