Doing Away with Wires
Voice & Data
While adoption of Bluetooth is yet to take off, India holds the promise of a major consumer push in the next couple of years.Ravi Shekhar Pandey
April 1, 2001 --
Imagine the day when you would not need any wires to connect your laptop or PC to a printer or even your corporate network! Also, think of an array of electronic devices at your home or workplace communicating with each other or obeying your commands from a distance! While there may be many other technologies that can or are making these things possible, the one that is gaining currency fast is known as Bluetooth. Simply put, Bluetooth is a technology that lets devices talk to each other. It replaces the cables that traditionally connect different equipment. Basically, a low cost radio interface that works around the world in the global 2.45 GHz ISM band, it can handle both voice and data. Bluetooth-enabled products like cellphones, laptops, PCs and other information appliances are already out in the markets in Europe and the United States. Whilst mass adoption of these products is still to take off, vendors and developers around the world are optimistic of a major consumer push in the next couple of years.
Even though the Bluetooth dream is still far off in India, many believe that the country could emerge as a large market for Bluetooth-enabled products. This, along with India’s proven software credentials, also has the potential to propel the country into the league of countries making Bluetooth-enabling software as well as Bluetooth-enabled products. Already, there are more then a dozen local companies developing software for various Bluetooth applications. Many others are seriously exploring the potential. As Ajesh Kapoor, country manager, Conexant Systems, puts it, "We have seen a lot of interest from various companies in India who are keen to design and manufacture Bluetooth-enabled products and we expect the products to be freely available in a year’s time". "Considering our middle-class population, Bluetooth applications seem to have a very promising future in the Indian marketplace", says Manjunath Murthy of WDC Wireless Solutions. Rajendra Misra, managing director, Tenet Technologies, believes that India being a software developing country with good knowledge of embedded systems, it is natural to work on Bluetooth. He observes that whatever is happening in the sector is more of a home-grown phenomenon and not something which has been influenced by international markets.
Bluetooth as a technology certainly has a cost advantage that makes it suitable for adoption in a country like India. The technology is very cheap compared to other wireless technologies. There will be areas—where the cost would remain prohibitive, but in a majority of the cases making products Bluetooth-enabled is going to cost not more than Rs 500. Even this cost is going to come down once volumes go up. This is certainly good for a country like India, with comparatively low-income levels but high consumer-electronics penetration. No doubt, as Kapoor points out, the office automation and consumer electronics industries and networking equipment manufacturers have expressed their keenness to exploit the potential of the technology. Bluetooth can bring down the cost of products like PCs, by eliminating the need for numerous, often proprietary and costly, cable attachments for connection to other communication or peripheral devices.
In other words, Bluetooth not only has the potential of adding value to various products, it also holds the promise of bringing down their costs.
Like the rest of the world, adoption of this technology will be unavoidable in many sectors. The first major push would come from PC or laptop users’ yearning to replace wires connecting these devices to various peripherals. "You would see foreign manufacturers bringing in Bluetooth-enabled products into India. This would force the Indian manufacturers to embrace this technology. Else, they would simply be left out", observes Hari Balasubramanian, COO & executive director, USoft. He is of the view that portable equipment would, by default, have the compulsory value addition of Bluetooth. Kapoor points out that with Internet booming in India and a number of portable computing and communication devices getting popular and available, the popularity of Bluetooth is inevitable. Murthy, however, asserts that arriving at conclusions regarding the value-addition role of the technology would be a little premature, as a whole ecosystem of products and services is necessary before the technology can achieve its potential. He, however, mentioned that Bluetooth would soon become compulsory, thereby ubiquitous in high-end models of mobile devices, like laptops and cellphones. Traditional products would continue to co-exist along with Bluetooth-enabled products.
India as a Hub:
Is India likely to emerge as a hub of Bluetooth application development in the near future, given the fact that the country possesses a vast reservoir of necessary software skills? Opinions vary. While pointing out that Scandinavian countries and the United States were far ahead in the field, Misra points out that the major roadblock here is that India does not manufacture chips, which will have the Bluetooth stack embedded in them. "This means that we will only be backroom players, supplying the stack to OEMs (chip manufacturers and appliance vendors)", he says. Claims Murthy, "Uphl now, India has been mostly providing services in maintaining legacy codes, developing non-critical applications and working on labour intensive aspects of the software business. Bluetooth is cutting-edge technology in which India does not have a significant presence, especially as a product/technology supplier. It will take us a while to develop the caliber of companies and individuals, who can make a significant presence in this area". However, Kapoor is optimistic that India has the requisite capabilities and expertise to become a major hub of Bluetooth development because of the vast expertise available in software and RF design. "The Indian market is a potential market for consumer appliances and these appliances need to communicate with each other. This will be a major driving force for this technology. With Bluetooth technology becoming mature, the hardware cost of Bluetooth will come down and this will make it all the more attractive for consumer appliances to be Blue Tooth enabled," he observes.
"International key players are making an effort to enter the Indian market, mainly because of the opportunities in terms of software expertise this country provides them," Sandeep Srivastava, CTO, MyZus Infotech Pvt. Ltd., and Rupinder Bains, project manager, MyZus Infotech Pvt. Ltd., point out. Leading IT services and infrastructure management company – IT&T, has tied up with Intel to bring Bluetooth technology to India, which would enable mobile computing devices and home appliances to communicate in a wireless office or home environment. Recently, AU Systems of Sweden, a telecommunications company giant has expressed its desire to invest in India–to use the technical expertise for Bluetooth application development.
