In-Stat/MDR Bluetooth Wrap-up for 2003

[Gary Mark]

Bluetooth Wrap Up for 2003

The turnout at the Bluetooth Americas 2003 conference in San Jose last
week made it clear that the time to combine various short-distance
wireless technologies under one umbrella has come.  As the venue for the
June Amsterdam conference has changed to an overall Wireless
Connectivity conference, so too we expect the December San Jose
conference to change as well.

Snippets from some of the announcements from the Bluetooth conference
include the following.

SMART Modular Technologies announced that it had successfully shipped
its one-millionth Bluetooth module since January 2003.  Also at the one
million mark is Zeevo, who announced in November that it had shipped one
million units (to date) -- a significant milestone for a fabless RF
semiconductor company.  Zeevo’s Bluetooth solutions are currently
shipping in HP’s iPAQ Pocket PC models H1940 and H2215. Zeevo announced
that their new ZV4002 single chip solution was Bluetooth 1.2 qualified,
with the chip already in production mode.

TI announced its second-generation single-chip Bluetooth solution, the
BRF6150, which has been qualified to the Bluetooth 1.2 specification.
The BRF6150 consumes less overall power, costs less, and requires fewer
parts, and simplifies the design integration, in an effort to attract
more sockets in the targeted mobile phone and PDA markets.  The 6150
offers a low 6 micro amps power consumption when Bluetooth is off.

Silicon Wave’s SiW3000 UltimateBlue single-chip and HCI software
solution received Bluetooth qualification for the newly released
Bluetooth 1.2 specification.  The SiW3000 is in volume production. This
chip joins the Bluetooth 1.2-compliant SiW3500 UltimateBlue IC, which
has been optimized for use in mobile phones. Silicon Wave and RF Micro
Devices announced the release of UltimateBlue Serial Connectivity, a
Bluetooth serial cable replacement solution for use with the SiW3500 and
SiW3000 UltimateBlue chips.  The integration of all the software
elements, including Bluetooth Serial Port Profile and full Bluetooth
protocol stack on the SiW3500 and SiW3000 chips, allows OEMs to quickly
add wireless connectivity to their existing products.

National announced its newest Bluetooth product family that complies
with the Bluetooth 1.2 specification. The LMX5452 combines the radio
with an enhanced Bluetooth 1.2 baseband into a micro-module package, and
is targeted at mobile phone and computing applications. Samples for both
devices are available now, while production quantities are scheduled by
the end of December 2003 for the LMX5252, and in 1Q04 for the LMX5452.
High-volume pricing is below $3 for the ‘5252 and below $4 for the
‘5452.

CSR was recently selected by BenQ, a large mobile phone Original Design
Manufacturer, to supply its BlueCore solution for the new BenQ
smartphone, the P30.  The P30 is a tri-band GSM/GPRS phone that includes
VGA digital video with MPEG-4 and MP3 audio. CSR also announced an
addition to its third-generation chip solutions, the BlueCore3 External.
The BlueCore3-External uses external Flash memory, and supports the
Bluetooth v1.2 specification.  The chip is sampling now, and production
is scheduled for 2Q04, with a price of $3.50 each in million-unit
quantities. CSR announced that its Bluetooth silicon will now be used by
Saab for its 9-3 Sport Sedan and 9-3 Convertible.

In Europe, as of December 1, 2003, the handheld use of mobile phones in
a vehicle became illegal in the UK.  Fines range from 1,000 to 2,500
British Pounds.  This new law, in addition to similar laws passed in the
US and Asia, will help to push adoption of handsfree systems use in
automobiles, thus increasing the demand for Bluetooth handsfree options.

There is good news for the US Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone market (and
other countries using CDMA cellular infrastructure).  To date, there has
been a dearth of CDMA mobile phones that include embedded Bluetooth.
But, a number of Bluetooth-enabled CDMA phones will be filtering into
the market during the first half of 2004.

Our July 2003 worldwide forecast for Bluetooth chipsets still stands,
with expected shipments for 2003 of 76.6 million.

You can view the latest Bluetooth research at:
http://www.instat.com/catalog/ncatalogue.asp?id=186

Joyce Putscher - Director
Bluetooth
<http://www.instat.com/catalog/wpcatalogue.asp?Segment=Bluetooth>
jputscher at reedbusiness.com