Manufacturers of electronic devices have been unveiling new Bluetooth-equipped products since late last year. Much is expected of Bluetooth, a wireless interface that allows electronic devices such as mobile phones and PCs to communicate with each other over short distances. However, most Bluetooth devices that have appeared so far are incapable of exchanging data with similar Bluetooth devices made by other manufacturers, meaning that in order for the wireless link to be effective, both devices involved have to be products of the same maker. The reason is that there are currently three different versions of Bluetooth specifications. (See Table).

Actually, the official specs -- Version 1.1 -- still haven't been finalized; they are expected to be made publicly available at the end of March. In spite of this, most manufacturers who have been eager to develop Bluetooth products have gone ahead regardless. They say that what they have done is inevitable given the sluggish pace, caused by repeated episodes of confusion and bickering, that has been an unfortunate characteristic of the official standardization process. Two additional reasons why the manufacturers decided to push ahead with their own product development plans despite what was going on elsewhere have been problems regarding the Bluetooth logo certification system and worries about worsening business performance at LM Ericsson .

Bluetooth products already on the market comply with either Version 1.0b or Version 1.0b + CE (Critical Errata) specs and, unfortunately, devices built to one version of the specs are unable to communicate with any device that uses the other version. Version 1.0b included errors and vague descriptions, and even a security hole that would make it easy for unauthorized devices to link to the authorized Bluetooth devices. To address the security hole, Version 1.1 will have to be so different from its Version 1.0b predecessor as to make them totally incompatible with each other.

The current confusion surrounding Bluetooth was not caused solely by the problems with Version 1.0b of the specs; there has also been trouble with the logo certification system, and with Ericsson's waning fortunes. In order to market Bluetooth-equipped products, it is necessary for manufacturers to obtain permission to use the Bluetooth logo from the Special Interest Group (SIG) . A big problem is that until now permission to use the Bluetooth logo, which should really only be authorized for products that comply with the official Version 1.1 specs, has been freely given out for products that comply only with the earlier 1.0b and 1.0b + CE versions.

Another cause of concern regarding Bluetooth has been the rapidly deteriorating performance of Ericsson's mobile phone manufacturing operations. That Ericsson, a company that should be acting as one of the main engines powering more widespread Bluetooth usage, has been encountering such problems is given as another reason why many manufacturers decided to push on with their own development of products incorporating Versions 1.0b and 1.0b + CE, rather than waiting around to see how the market turns out. Ericsson has now actually spun off its phone-making operations, so the final decision as to what functions new phones will have will be made by Taiwan's Arima . Arima revealed early on that it mainly favors manufacturing low-cost phones, which means that there's a possibility that Bluetooth could be dispensed with or put on the back burner.