After an excellent first day—over 670 attendees and every presentation filled to capacity—we were anxious for day two. Day two was about sitting down with our members to discuss the future ofBluetooth® technology and the challenges it faces.

From left to right: Suke Jawanda, Stuart Carlaw, Robert Scoble and Tolga Latif

One of those discussions on competition led off with a panel session with Stuart Carlaw, ABI Research, Robert Scoble, Rackspace and Tolga Latif, Linx Technologies. Here are the highlights:

Question: Who are the two top competitors for Bluetooth technology?

Carlaw: “For the consumer electronics market, Wi-Fi is the big competitor. Cellular is also a potential competitor because the cost of chips is dropping rapidly. As far as appcessories are concerned, Wi-Fi has stepped up its game.”

Latif: “Wi-Fi is indeed the big one. Wi-Fi Direct is something we were looking at, but it doesn’t implement the degree of changes needed to make it power efficient enough. The second is the myriad of proprietary competitors.”

Scoble: “I think it is Bluetooth itself. The organization needs to stay relevant. The issue is how fast the SIG can adapt the technology to address the needs of targeted markets.”

Question: If you were in charge of Bluetooth product development, what would you focus on?

Scoble: “I’d keep my eye on industry movers, like Facebook, who want to do things in the home. If they come up with a new use case for their own purposes, they might try to invent something else.”

Carlaw: “Range—you have to work on that. Bluetooth needs better range to work well in the smart home. Second item is to focus on enabling indoor location. Third is looking at mesh topologies that give new features and benefits like redundancy.”

Latif: “Range is the big issue. Bluetooth is half the range of competing solutions. One thing to keep an eye on is ‘white space’—using spectrum previously used for TV broadcasts.”

Question: Where do you see Bluetooth in five years? 

Scoble: “I think we will all have up to 20 Bluetooth devices on us all the time. It’s going to be all over.”

Carlaw: “It really grows when there are Bluetooth sensors in the environment and beyond your body providing information back to the sensors you’re wearing. This is something I see happening.”

Next came in-depth sessions on several vertical markets: audio, consumer electronics, automotive, mobile telephony, healthcare, fitness and home automation.

Audio and consumer electronics are traditionally associated with Bluetooth technology as nearly every tablet, speaker, headphone, notebook or PC is Bluetooth enabled. The automotive andmobile telephony sectors are also strongly aligned to Bluetooth technology.

Healthcare and fitness are two new areas in which Bluetooth technology is rapidly gaining ground. With healthcare costs on the rise and doctors workload increasing, Bluetooth Smart devices offer simple, self-monitoring solutions because of its low energy feature, secure connection and open standard. The same can be said for the proliferation of new Bluetooth enabled fitness devices.

Bluetooth Smart technology ensures wireless home automation is no longer a thing of the future. Any Bluetooth Smart Ready device serves as a remote control for a wide range of home products, from security devices, to door locks, to thermostats and lights.

Bluetooth technology is coming into its own and the past two days confirmed this, confirmed its future and started some great discussions within the member community. Bluetooth World  was meant to inspire, empower, teach and connect you to the future of Bluetooth wireless technology and I think we did just that. Now the real work and fun begins and we can’t wait to see the next-generation of Bluetooth enabled products coming to market.

(Credit: Unknown)