Doing Away with Wires

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.

Ravi Shekhar Pandey