BELLEVUE, Wash.-The Bluetooth Special Interest Group reported that more than 5 million Bluetooth units are being shipped per week. The Bluetooth SIG noted that at the end of 2004 more than 250 million Bluetooth units had been shipped worldwide, and it expects to surpass the 500 million total units shipped by the end of this year.
“Five million units shipped validates the sizeable market for Bluetooth technology-every time you blink an eye, another 10 Bluetooth chipsets see the world,” said Michael Foley, executive director of the Bluetooth SIG.
The Bluetooth SIG recently reported plans to begin working with ultra-wideband technology developers to extend the long-term roadmap of Bluetooth with higher-speed capabilities of UWB. The combined solution, which is still waiting a final UWB specification before advancing, is expected to use Bluetooth for low-speed applications and UWB for higher-bandwidth applications.
Analysts at one point expected the Bluetooth industry to be shipping more than 1 billion chipsets per year by 2006, but have recently begun backing off those bullish predictions following slower-than-anticipated consumer adoption of the short-range wireless technology.
