Sleepless in Seattle has been done. How about wireless?

The 'Can Bluetooth be cool?' campaign has been running for more than a month now. The original blog sparked off a great deal of dialogue.

Then the movie we created at the UK BiteBack event gave us unparalleled insight into the way real consumers are using Bluetooth, and their views on whether this is a cool technology, or not. Who would have thought that file-sharing was the golden application for Bluetooth, not handset to headset?

Taking the views of just one group in one geographical location is not a good idea, so I'm tremendously pleased that the Bluetooth SIG has invited us to re-stage BiteBack in Seattle. This is happening at a Halloween-themed night on Friday the 30th of October at the SEE Sound Lounge in Belltown, on Seattle's downtown waterfront. Once again, we will be taking the IncisorTV cameras to a busy music venue and talking to the people that actually buy and use the tech stuff that we spend every day trying to promote. And making a movie that will be available to view here at the www.incisor.tv site.

But it's time to move the project on. It really isn't my goal to simply learn about what people think about Bluetooth today. I want to start the process of improving awareness of Bluetooth's capabilities, and maybe even starting to make people think that wireless technology, and Bluetooth specifically at the moment, CAN be cool. So I'm talking to consumer electronics device companies such as Jabra, Sony Ericsson, Parrot, Plantronics etc, to see which of them is brave enough to get out there with me and start tackling the challenge. To sit with the people in Seattle and talk to them about why they should be doing more with Bluetooth than just sharing music tracks.

Following the first BiteBack event/movie, people at these companies are readily acknowledging that boosting Bluetooth so that everybody makes it a 'must have' feature is what they need to do. But it is like the elephant in the room - you can't ignore the fact that it is there, but do you want to try to shift it? Over the next couple of weeks, I'll find out how many visionaries there are left out there. The Bluetooth SIG has stepped up to the plate and is supporting BiteBack Seattle. Who else will be there, with Mike Foley and myself, telling the Bluetooth story to Seattle's young and beautiful?

This is going to be one interesting event! And one which any reader of this blog is more than welcome to come along to.

Why does Bluetooth still not work the way it should?

Anybody who knows me knows that I have been a supporter and promoter of Bluetooth technology since it first started to poke its head above the parapet, way back in 1998. But there is an elephant in my room, and its tusks are blue! Despite all the good work that the Bluetooth SIG and all its responsible member companies have done, it is still the case that Bluetooth phones, headsets etc sometimes don't work the way they should.

Example - I use a Nokia N96 with a Jabra JX20 headset - both high-end products from respected companies. The two are paired and work OK on first connection. But, if I go out of range, or switch the headset off for some reason, they then will not reconnect. I have to switch the headset off and re-boot the phone. In a given day this can happen several times. Most frustrating.

After 11 years of Bluetooth development, and with two products from a couple of the most respected manufacturers, this really shouldn't be happening. And this isn't isolated. A lot of kit passes through our hands, and similar things happen all the time. I'm in the industry, so I keep using this kit, but what will consumers be thinking?

I've put the question to the wireless community, and Peter Hauser, CEO of The Quality Factory came back with these observations?

I'm surprised nobody is willing to comment here!

Your question: "Why does Bluetooth still not work the way it should?" is more a question about "Quality" than it is about "Conformance to the Bluetooth standard" and therein lies the problem...

First of-all, there will always be a struggle between innovation and conformance to a standard. Every company wants, and needs to innovate. This implies that every company seeks to use the standards in new and interesting ways, and when they do, they make "assumptions" as to how other, compatible products, will react, thus creating the first problem...

For instance, the Bluetooth standards speak little about timing tolerances for commands and responses (beyond the standard timeouts). Some devices can respond very quickly to a command, while others cannot. If, however, a device is EXPECTING a delayed response and instead receives a very rapid one, if the firmware is intolerant, it could cause the device to lock-up.

Also - the Bluetooth standards do not currently address most multi-profile scenarios. It is only recently that the common "HFP, HSP, A2DP, and AVRCP" in a single device scenario was examined more closely for integration into the specifications AND the play/pause behavior (you know, where Play means Play, and Pause means Pause) has changed between the whitepaper and the specifications.

In short, unless companies are willing to invest in clarifying and standardizing their assumptions, these types of problems will continue.

And then, there's the issue of QUALITY.

With Bluetooth technology's pull towards commoditization, this complex technology is now in the hands of implementers who don't understand its intricacies and are building products based on new assumptions. Couple that with reduced development budgets for commodity products, and you have all of the makings of a reduction in product quality.

Teams are no longer "expected" to attend such events as UPF and to conduct extensive interoperability tests. Instead, they are expected to keep development budgets as low as possible.

All the while, new platforms are opening-up APIs that enable 3rd party applications to affect the Bluetooth performance. For instance, a mobile phone may have three separate music players on it. If one of those music players interacts with the Bluetooth A2DP/AVRCP (music) stack in an unexpected fashion, it could damage otherwise solid interoperability with wireless stereo headsets.

So - I guess the answer to your very simple question is quite complex.

If companies are going to do a really good job making their solutions "work" in the real world, they need to take the time to understand the assumptions made by products that already exist in the marketplace (of which there are many), find the similarities in these assumptions, and design accordingly.

Then, they need to TEST, TEST, and TEST again.

Thanks, Peter. Other contributions on this topic are very welcome. In the meantime, I may just have to change my own gadgets on a more often basis to check whether this situation is getting better, or worse.

After all, a Nokia N96 has been around for quite a while now ....

Bluetooth outscores ZigBee in healthcare scramble

Once in a while, news crops up that justifies me publishing something outside of Incisor's normal cycle. Well, it is one of those times.

For the past week or so the Bluetooth SIG has been getting excited about an announcement in the low energy sector.

Today the news goes public, and it surrounds the fact that the Continua Health Alliance has opted to go with Bluetooth low energy as part of the process of putting together a portfolio of personal telehealth solutions.

ZigBee has also been given a degree of support, but only for one application, whereas Bluetooth is gaining a broadstroke level of support.

Healthcare and wellness (what ever that is) are extremely important target markets for the technologies that are competing in the low energy market, so this is a big deal for Bluetooth. Big enough for SIG exec director Mike Foley to tell me last week that if asked to quantify it, he would say that on a scale of importance, it was (for him at least) 'one step below the potential Microsoft Yahoo acquisition.'

Is it? Well time will tell. Whatever else, this announcement is another reminder that there is one heck of a lot of focus on low energy wireless technology at the moment.

I understand that the ZigBee companies are a little miffed that they didn't get broader support from Continua, at least, this is the word on the industry grapevine.

To allow you to make your own minds up, here is the Bluetooth SIG announcment to kick off, followed by the Continua Alliance's version, which also mentions the ZigBee deal.

More to follow in the next issue of Incisor!

Cheers,

Vince



BLUETOOTH TECHNOLOGY CHOSEN AS HEALTH DEVICE STANDARD

Continua Health Alliance Selects Bluetooth Low Energy Technology for Design Guidelines

BELLEVUE, WA – June 8, 2009 – The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) today announced the selection of Bluetooth wireless technology by Continua Health Alliance, the industry coalition of leading health care and technology companies charged with establishing a system of interoperable personal telehealth solutions. Once finalized, Continua will include the upcoming Bluetooth low energy wireless technology specification in Version Two of its Continua Health Alliance Design Guidelines. The selection of Bluetooth low energy technology extends the current Continua standard for the Bluetooth Health Device Profile, the only wireless technology specification included in Continua’s Version One Design Guidelines.

Bluetooth low energy technology is a power efficient, short-range, wireless technology that offers connectivity between mobile devices and small, battery powered devices such as watches, and health and fitness sensors. Bluetooth low energy technology features low power consumption, small size and low cost, and integration in mobile phones, all providing Continua a reliable solution to enable mobile devices for a wide range of personal telehealth audiences.

“Continua’s choice of Bluetooth low energy technology – a specification in development at this time and expected to be adopted by the end of the year – underscores the excitement and need for this Bluetooth wireless standard in the telehealth arena,” said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director, Bluetooth SIG.

Chosen over several other wireless technologies after a rigorous 10-month review process, Bluetooth technology was selected to enable low power mobile devices such as activity monitors and heart rate sensors to be used to monitor a user’s health and fitness levels.

“The Bluetooth SIG brings not only a superb wireless technology to our Design Guidelines, but a state-of-the-art testing and qualification program to our members,” said Rick Cnossen, Continua president and chairman of the Board of Directors. “The continued choice to work with Bluetooth wireless technology and the Bluetooth SIG is a natural extension for Continua.”

The radio selection process was conducted by members of the Continua Low Power Radio Sub-Team, the Continua Technical Working Group and the Continua Board of Directors. All teams were aided by experts from the technology and health care industries-at-large, as well as guided by research conducted by an independent third party analysis firm. A rigorous process was employed over the course of 10 months to select from many outstanding technologies. After consideration of required power levels, cell phone ubiquity, required range, and anticipated market penetration, Bluetooth technology was chosen to satisfy the required use cases.


And the Continua announcement:


Continua Health Alliance Looks to the Future with the Selection of Two New Low Power Radio Standards, Enabling Expanded Use Cases Addition of Bluetooth low energy technology and ZigBee Health Care to provide connectivity for mobile and home sensors

BEAVERTON, Ore. – June 8, 2009 – Continua Health Alliance, the non-profit, open industry coalition of leading health care and technology companies, has selected two wireless technology standards for inclusion in the next version of its interoperability Design Guidelines. The selection of two low power standards will allow additional devices used for health and fitness, as well as aging independently, to join the Continua ecosystem. This decision enables Continua to advance its mission of establishing a system of interoperable, personal telehealth solutions, empowering people and organizations.

The two wireless technology standards are targeted to support mobile and fixed location devices as defined by the next iteration of the Continua Health Alliance Design Guidelines. The alliance has selected Bluetooth low energy wireless technology (pending finalization of the specification) to enable low power mobile devices such as activity monitors and heart rate sensors to be used to monitor a user’s health and fitness levels. Additionally, Continua has selected ZigBee Health Care technology for low power sensors that can be networked in a variety of settings, and utilized in devices such as motion detectors and bed pressure sensors to enhance the daily living of those who require assistance aging independently.

"I am excited to announce the forward progress of Continua and its Version Two Design Guidelines. The selection of Bluetooth low energy wireless technology, pending finalization of the specification, and ZigBee Health Care as standards to be included in the guidelines will expand the ability of Continua members to deliver compelling products to consumers," said Rick Cnossen, Continua president and chairman of the Board of Directors. "Our existing Design Guidelines introduced support for Bluetooth wireless technology and USB. Those standards now will be augmented to allow Continua to deliver expanded use cases to satisfy the broad demands of health and fitness, and aging independently applications."

Bluetooth low energy technology is a power efficient, short-range wireless technology that offers connectivity between mobile devices and small, battery-powered devices such as watches, emergency pendants and health and fitness sensors. It features low power consumption, small size and low cost, providing Continua a reliable solution to enable mobile devices for a wide range of telehealth audiences. Bluetooth low energy technology extends the current Continua standard for the Bluetooth Health Device Profile, the only wireless technology specification included in Continua’s Version One Design Guidelines, announced in February 2009.


"We are pleased that Continua Health Alliance has selected Bluetooth low energy wireless technology for inclusion in its next Design Guidelines, and are excited about the compelling Bluetooth-enabled devices Continua members will bring to the market," said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director, Bluetooth Special Interest Group. "Bluetooth technology has become the ubiquitous wireless standard for mobile device connectivity, and Bluetooth low energy technology will provide Continua with connectivity perfectly suited for incorporation in mobile applications."


ZigBee Health Care development was completed in March 2009. It provides a standard for use by assistive devices operating in non-invasive environments. This interoperable low power wireless solution enables devices to securely and reliably monitor and manage data, without Wi-Fi interference. It can support from two to thousands of devices in a single network. Designed with flexibility in mind, ZigBee Health Care products will be used in a variety of settings, including private residences, recreation centers, retirement communities, hospitals and nursing homes. ZigBee Health Care technology offers Continua a low power, globally accepted method for collecting data in a variety of locations.

"Low-power sensing and monitoring is a core competency of ZigBee and we are excited to help Continua build its technology roadmap and help expand the telehealth industry ecosystem," said Dr. Robert F. Heile, chairman, ZigBee Alliance. "ZigBee Health Care gives care professionals and consumers the ability to connect an almost unlimited number of monitoring devices with ease while maintaining privacy."

By providing the technical roadmap for standards-based connected health solutions, Continua is spurring innovation while removing barriers to global implementation and adoption. The publication of the Continua Health Alliance Version One Design Guidelines earlier this year will be followed by the group’s next Design Guidelines issuance, slated for first-half 2010, that will enable new devices, additional use cases and extend the capabilities of devices in the Continua Health Alliance ecosystem.

"Numerous demographic and health status factors will drive the rapid growth of personal telehealth," said Lynne A. Dunbrack, program director, Health Industry Insights, an IDC company. "Continua's commitment to utilize established connectivity standards, such as Bluetooth and ZigBee, will provide the tangible technology base for more widespread telemedicine and remote patient monitoring in the next 12 to 24 months. Together, Bluetooth low energy technology and ZigBee Health Care transport solutions will open new use cases to new classes of devices and services. The continued innovation in connected technology will aid in the deployment of comprehensive solutions for personal health management."

The radio selection process was conducted by members of the Continua Low Power Radio Sub-Team, the Continua Technical Working Group and the Continua Board of Directors. All teams were aided by experts from the technology and health care industries-at-large, as well as guided by research conducted by an independent third party analysis firm. A rigorous process was employed over the course of ten months to select from many outstanding technologies. After consideration of required power levels, cell phone ubiquity, required range and anticipated market penetration, Continua arrived at two technologies to optimally satisfy the required use cases. Today’s announcement marks the conclusion of the selection process that has allowed Continua to select technologies that will support the innovation, ingenuity and technical prowess of Continua member companies.

Don’t believe the UWB rubbish

Paraphrasing the great Mark Twain, the rumours of UWB’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. I admit that I am lucky enough to have a set of contacts in the wireless industry that give me a bit of an advantage over the average, broadstroke tech journalist, but it does get my goat when I read the guff currently being distributed by a lot of august members of the technology press.

If we are to believe what the media is saying, UWB is dead or dying. Now, I admit that I am no engineer, and that my view is more commercially than bits’n’bytes -based, but this is just not the case. For all sorts of reasons of which I do have a sound-enough understanding, UWB has an important and valuable role to play in the medium and long-term high speed wireless market.

Why is UWB struggling, and why is it currently on the back foot? Well, there are various reasons, some relating to a shortage of funding for UWB companies that are within a frustratingly short time of shipping product out of the door. Others are political. One industry luminary, for example, puts the failure of UWB to make it into Bluetooth 3.0 squarely at the door of one other individual. Nobody wants to name names at the moment, though, so I have to sit on this one. Meanwhile, Wi-Fi proponents rub their hands.

One thing is for sure though. The remaining UWB companies have failed to keep the PR going. Nobody has been saying anything positive, and so it is no wonder that the media has made assumptions, jumped to conclusions, and has broadcast to the world that UWB is an ex-factor.

The passage of time could prove me wrong, but I believe that UWB/Wireless USB will succeed and I’m ready to eat my hat if it doesn’t happen. Real products are hitting the streets – the Leyio and other products in the June issue of Incisor - and that really is the proof of the pudding. And the UWB companies are waking up to the need to let the world know that they are still here. Staccato Communications was one of the original trailblazers, and it is with great pleasure that I welcome the San Diego company back as an Incisor sponsor. Read Staccato’s take on the UWB market in the June issue of Incisor.

My message? Don’t believe everything you read in the press. Unless it is in Incisor.

Get off your backsides - failure isn't an option!

I wonder how many of you will have seen our humorous advert on page 17 of the latest issue of Incisor?

I hoped that our readers would appreciate the light-hearted tone, but there is a serious message there. At this time, marketing and PR seem to have ground to a halt in the industries that we cover. This is inextricably linked to a great deal of commercial uncertainty, courtesy of the global economic recession. Yet, every company that we work with wants and needs to stay financially secure, and what is the one thing that can underpin that? Sales, or course. Can a company expect to grow or even maintain current sales levels if it is invisible to the market? No, of course not.

Incisor is no different, and I will do whatever I can to keep my company safe too. That means talking to all of my business contacts, and exploring options as to how we can help each other.

The Incisor global audience is just as interested today in short-range wireless technology as it was 6-9 months ago, before the financial market imploded. I have recently been distributing a sample list of new subscribers that have signed up for Incisor in just the last two months. The quality of Incisor's subscribers is evident from this list, but bear in mind that this is just new subscriptions from the last 8 weeks. Our subscriber base is made up of many thousands of similar people who have all asked to receive Incisor since we started publishing in 1998. Hand on heart, I can say that this is a database that gets you directly to the most accurately targeted database imaginable for any company operating in the short-range wireless industry.

Most of the companies around me are in 'rabbit in the headlights' mode at the moment, but there is hope for those not prepared to sit around and wait for Armageddon. As I say in the title, failure isn't an option, and anyone talking to me at the moment about spreading their messages will find that I've effectively thrown the Incisor rate card out of the window.

Let's all make some noise, and keep the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, UWB, DECT, NFC, RFID, ZigBee and any other form of wireless fandango industry moving along.

The alternative is too awful to contemplate. I might have to get a proper job.

Why is Wi-Fi still so hard??? And long live the USB cable!

You would think that somebody who has been writing about wireless technology for 10 years would know their way around a piece of kit, wouldn't you?

Well, today's experience proves otherwise.

Why? Well, I bought a new HP all in one printer, scanner fax thingy this week, and for the first time I had the option to print over a Wi-Fi connection. I already have a Wi-Fi router and my laptop accesses my broadband connection using that. No problem.

So, you would think that in this day and age it would be fairly simple to hook up a laptop and printer via Wi-Fi. It is heck as like! I've now spent two and a half hours trying to make this work and am still getting nowhere.

I can hear you saying - RTFM - well I have, and that didn't help because I don't have a degree in computer engineering and this FM would be no help to anyone with less than that level of expertise. Try the HP web site, you say. I did, I say. And got nowhere. Salvation seemed to be at hand when I saw that there was a link to a page where I could actually speak to somebody on the phone. Perfect! Just what I wanted. Doubtless I would have to pay somebody to tell me how their piece of kit should work (don't you just think that is criminal?), but I don't mind. I've already wasted a huge chunk of my day trying to achieve what should be a simple task. But no - when I click on the link the HP site just freezes, the progress bar stops at two green boxes and the message says at the bottom says 'waiting to connect to ....'. AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!! I often think these companies just don't want to have to face up to their responsibilities as happens when they get a frustrated punter on the phone. Yes, I've seen the stats about how one tech support call to a network operator wipes out the profit on the customer's cellular bill for several months. So they make it as difficult as possible, or even impossible.

It is a travesty that this type of equipment is foisted on the unsuspecting public without proper support. In Incisor last month the WPANel exec committee all talked about the marketing of wireless technology. I think there are still a lot of industry execs out there who are kidding themselves if they think enough is being done to help ordinary people use consumer electronics, and in my case particularly wireless technology.

So, I will continue using my new printer via a USB cable. And the blue Wi-Fi light on the printer (didn't Bluetooth grab the rights on blue LEDs?) will continue to stare balefully at me from across the desk.

There is a lot of work to be done, wireless marketeers.

What to make of the Bluetooth SIG / WiMedia merger?

This merger has been a long time coming, believe you me. I’ve known that the WiMedia Alliance was to be merged into the Bluetooth SIG for nearly a year, but couldn’t talk about it. There have been some things to sort out, and it has taken until now for the two parties to decide that they can go public.

So, what is the official line? The lead statement from a press release issued by the WiMedia Alliance today (I have stripped the whole version in at the end of this piece) says: “The WiMedia Alliance announced today it is entering into technology transfer agreements for the WiMedia Ultra-wideband (UWB) specifications. WiMedia will transfer all current and future specifications, including work on future high speed and power optimized implementations, to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), Wireless USB Promoter Group and the USB Implementers Forum. After the successful completion of the technology transfer, marketing and related administrative items, the WiMedia Alliance will cease operations.”

Note that the WiMedia Alliance is the only one to press release this. The Bluetooth SIG has chosen to restrict itself to telling only its members. There are reasons, but they are not for public debate.

Note too that the WiMedia Alliance is also transferring ownership to the Wireless USB Promoter Group and the the USB Implementers Forum. Now, unlike the Bluetooth SIG and every other wireless industry alliance that Incisor works with, those two USB organisations go completely their own way and are somewhat insular. I can’t be bothered to keep trying to talk to them so if you need comment from them I wish you good luck. But the fact that they are there means this is really a ménage a trois, not a two-party party. And there are implications, as we shall see below.
And what does the announcement really mean? Well, the WiMedia Alliance will disappear, for a start. There is due to be a member meeting in Seattle later this month. Whether this is to go ahead or not, I don’t know.

The Bluetooth SIG will continue to develop UWB as the second (and ultimately fastest and lowest power) high speed data channel for Bluetooth. Wi-Fi is the short term solution.

What are the real issues? Well, as I see it, they are these:


Was this really necessary?

Starting with this first, there are two observations. First, WiMedia has been struggling to make UWB stick for some time. Struggling not because there is anything shabby about the underlying technology, but because it has been swimming in a big pond with a lot of other aggressive fish. To take any technology to widespread adoption takes a lot of commitment and a not insignificant amount of money. At the best of times this would have been a big ask, but with UWB taking a long time to get to market, and then that situation colliding headlong with a major global recession, it was quite possible that failure was an option. The WiMedia Alliance needed to align with a major partner, and the Bluetooth SIG was the obvious answer. As I intimated above, talks about a merger have been going on for a long time, and in my honest opinion this announcement is happening now because it was not going to be possible for the WiMedia Alliance to go it alone for much longer.

And secondly, there is the reasoning that both the WiMedia Alliance and the Bluetooth SIG have been stating. There is massive crossover in terms of membership between the two organisations. The Bluetooth SIG’s exec director, talking to me on Friday, suggested that 90% of WiMedia Alliance members were also Bluetooth SIG members. As Foley observed, “At any time, but especially now, it is important to be seen to make your standardisation dollars go as far as you can. “ Fair point. WiMedia president Stephen Wood, who I also talked to on Friday, said that the number of WiMedia member companies that weren’t also Bluetooth SIG members was just seven.


Will it really happen, and if not, why not?

It is safe to assume that both the Bluetooth SIG and the WiMedia boards want this to happen. The announcement wouldn’t be possible if they didn’t. But – the WiMedia Alliance doesn’t own the key UWB IP, it belongs to the members that have developed UWB, so WiMedia can’t just hand it over. And both the Bluetooth SIG and WiMedia Alliance operate under different RAND IPR models. For the Bluetooth/WiMedia merger to go beyond what is effectively a statement of intent, the WiMedia members have to agree to sign over their IP to the Bluetooth SIG. Will they do so? My guess is they probably will. Without the support of the Bluetooth SIG, they are going to have a substantially more difficult job taking the technology and their companies forward. As I’ve stated many times now, these talks have also been going on for a long time, and if any of those WiMedia companies was going to raise a storm over contributing their IP, they would probably have said so by now.


And the most worrying possibility?

That is that the Bluetooth SIG could take UWB in one direction while the Wireless USB bods could go off in another. We could have two different versions of UWB, which can’t be in the best interests of the technology. As the Bluetooth community continues to work towards using UWB as its high speed panacea, the Wireless USB companies will be working down their own road, while not necessarily in complete isolation, but certainly with a different set of goal posts, timelines etc. The words ‘death’ and ‘ knell’ spring to mind.

I mentioned this to both Foley and Wood. Foley admitted that from his organisation’s point of view, this new level of access to the WiMedia spec does provides Bluetooth developers with a new capability and a valuable advantage. “Up until now, we’ve only been able to reference the WiMedia spec, which has meant that any co-development was not necessarily best optimised for Bluetooth. Having the ‘black box’ handed over means we can open the lid and tweak things.” My forebodings of doom were somewhat allayed by both Foley and Wood suggesting that in terms of developments from this point forwards, the semiconductor companies will set the agenda, and that they wouldn’t want to be developing, building and supporting two different versions of UWB. Wood in particular pointed out the industry behemoths – the major handset companies – would not want to be dicing with non-interoperating versions of UWB.

We checked with our nearest semiconductor friends at CSR, and Gillian Ewers, Head of CSR’s Connectivity Marketing, Audio and Connectivity Business Unit commented, "CSR fully supports the merger of the WiMedia Alliance and the Bluetooth SIG which will help drive the integration of UWB technology into the high-speed Bluetooth roadmap. At Mobile World Congress in February, CSR successfully demonstrated its UWB technology transferring files at 200Mbps. CSR continues to support both Wi-Fi and WiMedia UWB variants of high-speed Bluetooth, and UWB remains a part of our Connectivity Centre proposition. CSR's Connectivity Centre applies CSR's Smart Integration techniques to combine multiple technologies and bring benefits to designers and end users."

So, everybody is saying the right things but I will admit that am not 100% convinced that there will be untroubled waters ahead.

One thing is for sure. Whichever way you look at it, what we knew as the WiMedia Alliance is disappearing. What will develop over the coming months remains to be seen, and we will of course feature further developments in Incisor, starting at the end of this month.

So, it is goodbye to WiMedia Alliance. And hello to plain sailing for UWB? Only time will tell.

And if you do want to read the whole, official release, here it is:

WiMedia Announces New Agreements with Bluetooth SIG and Wireless USB
Future specification development to build on UWB’s momentum


SAN RAMON, Calif. – March 16th, 2009 - The WiMedia Alliance announced today it is entering into technology transfer agreements for the WiMedia Ultra-wideband (UWB) specifications. WiMedia will transfer all current and future specifications, including work on future high speed and power optimized implementations, to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), Wireless USB Promoter Group and the USB Implementers Forum. After the successful completion of the technology transfer, marketing and related administrative items, the WiMedia Alliance will cease operations.

“We have reached a point in specification development and product availability where it is more efficient for the related industry groups to oversee future specification development in-house,” said Stephen Wood, president, WiMedia Alliance. “Recent announcements of cost-effective 2nd and 3rd generation products, the availability of high-band products for worldwide use, and UWB chipsets and consumer end products from industry giant Samsung are indicative of the momentum we have gained. Our technology is already embedded in Wireless USB and we have demonstrated working prototypes running the Bluetooth protocol. It now makes sense to streamline the process by passing off future specification development and certification.”

Many of the WiMedia Alliance members are current members of one or both of the other industry groups and so a seamless transition is expected as they continue to move the specifications forward.

“We have been working with the WiMedia Alliance for a number of years and together we share members and a common desire to forward the establishment of the most efficient and cost effective wireless solutions for any environment,” said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director, Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). “This is a natural transition and one that will streamline processes, bringing wireless products to market more quickly.”

“The Wireless USB Promoter Group and the USB-IF have worked closely with the WiMedia Alliance since its inception in support of the rapid development and adoption of Wireless USB standards and products,” said Jeff Ravencraft, USB-IF President and Chairman. “This technology transfer will provide our members with a one-stop process for certification and continued productization of Wireless USB.”

Incisor unites the WPAN factions!

We've just published the March issue of Incisor, which includes the second appearance of the Incisor WPANel. This is an group of executives brought together my Incisor to comment on topical issue within the Short Range wireless industry.

We've got all of the number one spokespersons for the various WPAN technology organisations - Mike Foley, exec director of the Bluetooth SIG, Erich Kamperschroer, chairman of the DECT Forum, Graham Martin, chairman of the EnOcean Alliance, Edgar Figueroa, executive director of the Wi-Fi Alliance, Stephen Wood, president of the WiMedia Alliance, and Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance.

I could be wrong, but I think this is the first time all of these guys have been brought together in this way - half the time they are at war with each other!

I think this is a great initiative and plan to develop the WPANel concept over the coming months. Anyone with any ideas as to how we could nurture the WPANel, and ways in which it could contribute, send me an email at vholton@incisor.tv