The Three Screens Platform, Part 2, Docking with the PC

By Stephen Wood, Technology Stragegist

This article is the second in a six part series discussing the convergence of the Smart Phone, Personal Computer, and Television. Each article will discuss an event or technical capability which is forecast to emerge in the near future. These forecasts were developed for Incisor using new techniques in market analysis that provide a context against which Incisor readers can evaluate the value of innovations entering the market.


The prior article in the series, The Emerging Three Screens Platform, described how the smart phone, PC and television were being connected together into a common logical system. In the same way that the PC was a physical platform and the Internet emerged as a logical platform, the Three Screens logical platform will cause significant changes to the way in which we interact with technology.

This article and several others in the series will explore portions of the Three Screens platform in detail. The focus of this article will be the connection between the smart phone and the PC. Just as docking stations were created for notebook PCs to enable them to gain access to better user interfaces, wired networks and peripherals, three screens docking will expand today’s docking station to enable the smart phone to connect to peripheral devices and other computing systems.

Before getting into the details of docking and the applications that it will enable, consider a theoretical point for a moment. Engineers all over the world are deeply involved in trying to figure out what new features should be added to the mobile phone. This is proving to be a challenging question for them. However, much of the difficulty is due to how one frames the problem.

If one believes that the task is to find new features to make a superior phone, the task is particularly difficult. This is because existing phone designs already excellent at solving the problem which telephony is intended to address. If, by contrast, one asks the question, “What can be changed to make an extraordinarily good mobile computer that also does telephony?” the range of options expands significantly.

This is a valid way to frame the problem because of the way that the market is evolving at present. If one looks at the computer industry, it is following a very clear trajectory. Desktop computers came first, followed by notebook. The next computer in the series is handheld. If one looks at the evolution of the telephone, it is moving from wired/stationary to wireless/mobile to intelligent/wireless/mobile. The definition of this last stage looks very much like the same device being built as the handheld computer. The markets are converging into a common device. However, the telephony portion of this common device is already quite mature as it has been in this form factor for some time. The greater opportunities for innovation are in the computation portion of the convergence. This then is where development teams will need to focus their attention in the search for differentiation.

Handheld computing differs from notebook computing in one very significant way. The notebook computer is a desktop computer that you can easily pick up and move to a second location. It is not mobile. It is nomadic. By contrast, the handheld computer needs to be both mobile and nomadic. In a mobile context, it talks to the world over a Wide Area Network (WAN). In a nomadic context, it employs a variety of short range connections. These are not just wired and wireless physical links. These connections also describe protocols and capabilities affecting security, enhanced user interfaces and improved ease of use. The best way to convey the idea of a docking system for the mobile computer is through application descriptions.

As an example, imagine that the user is a tourist visiting Rome. Rather than carrying a laptop computer, they carry a smart phone / handheld computer. At some point, they wish to sort through their photos, edit one or two and then email them home to their friends. So, they enter a local Internet café where they dock into a terminal which is composed of power, a monitor, keyboard and Internet connection. The terminal lights up as their personal PC using software and data resident on the handheld device. The larger screen and the keyboard enable the tourist to view and crop pictures. They write a long letter into which the photos are added. When they are done, the letter is sent. The tourist then picks up the handheld device and leaves, taking all of their data and software with them.

This example highlights the ability to temporarily enhance the user interface. While a thumb based keypad or a touch sensitive screen is an excellent choice for sending a quick note or an unmodified photo, it is insufficient for many tasks that involve creation tools such as word processing, presentation development, photograph editing, video editing, programming, etc. In these cases, the user shifts from a mobile context to a nomadic context where they are temporarily stationary.

As a second example, imagine an outside salesman for a engineering test equipment manufacturer. On a visit to one of his regular customers, he recognizes the opportunity to sell one of his company’s new oscilloscopes. Now, these devices cost about $45,000 each and weight around a hundred pounds. So, it is not practical to have one in his car. Instead, the salesman docks with the customer’s projector. He pulls up a presentation and walks the customer through the major features of the oscilloscope. When he is done, he disconnects the projector and docks with the user’s printer to print out the latest data sheets on the product.

This type of connection resembles the manner in which PCs connect to their peripherals. In this example, the application is nomadic. However, the connection could also be between the handheld computer and a heart monitor, pedometer or other health and wellness sensors.

In a third example, imagine a soccer mom going about her daily activities of shopping and managing children. Before leaving the house, she connects to the Internet. A program on the handheld computer quickly downloads music and video that have been selected to match her tastes. She bundles up the kids and loads them into the car. By docking her mobile computer into the car, she initiates a number of exchanges. The music that she downloaded from the Internet is uploaded into the radio where it can be used to create logical “stations” that are selected through her radio buttons in addition to normal radio stations. A movie is also uploaded to the car’s entertainment system to be played on the passenger seat display to keep the kids occupied during the drive. The car then uploads data from the engine to mobile computer. Assuming that the customer has signed up with their auto dealership, his information can be fed back to the dealer to monitor the car’s performance. Driving information can also be collected and fed back to insurance holders in order to earn good driver discounts.

As one of the soccer mom’s stops, she visits a grocery store to pick up a few items for dinner. Her handheld computer can be used as a financial instrument to dock with the Point Of Sale (POS) terminal to pay for her purchases. Instead of relying on a four digit PIN code, the handheld computer can use more sophisticated identification methods to prevent theft. The POS terminal also deposits electronic coupons onto the handheld computer and stamps her electronic loyalty card to enable her to get discounts for later visits. Any application for which a ticket or chit is provided can be adapted for use on the handheld computer. Valet tickets, prescriptions, theatre tickets, business cards, laundry tickets and a host of other incremental applications are possible.

Unlike a traditional notebook docking station, the dock for a handheld computer/smart phone needs to be standardized and common so that it can be readily employed by manufacturers across a number of different businesses. It needs to employ the security and identification functions that are present on the three screens platform in order to enable financial transactions. It should be able to identify the customer in order to associate consumption information to the right individual in order to build reliable profiles. In order to place and remove data from the device, there need to be common protocols for establishing where the device will be located and which programs have access. And because all of this connectivity creates an ideal viral environment, it is also necessary to have malware suppression technology to keep the system safe.

To bring this discussion all of the way back around to the beginning, these examples demonstrate how the change in mental context away from the obsolete mobile phone context and to the emerging converged context enables designers to readily develop new applications and to describe the functional blocks that enable them.

If the convergence that the market is entering were limited to the blending of PC with mobile phone, it would be a fairly straight forward task to identify all of the emerging features and uses. But there is more to this convergence than just these two. In the next article, the discussion will shift to include the convergence between the mobile phone and the television.

Additional information about the three screens platform and other upcoming market events can be found at www.mappingthewhitespaces.com.

Stephen Wood has spent the last eight years developing a series of behavioural models which explain the behaviour of high tech markets and which provide insights about upcoming events. These models provide the basis for the projections described in this series.

Additionally, Stephen has spent the last twenty years doing market analysis and product management in PAN, WAN and LAN technologies. Most recently, he held the role of President for the WiMedia Alliance in UWB personal area networking. Stephen’s website at www.mappingthewhitespaces.com discusses his models and forecast.

He can be contacted at
wood.stephen@verizon.net

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The future of the in-car GPS device and co-operation of in-car wireless technologies

By Thomas Carmody, Head of Automotive Marketing, Audio and Consumer Business Unit, CSR


Industry trends in in-car navigation devices
The world of in-car wireless technologies is undergoing some fascinating changes right now. Not least amongst these is the world of in-car GPS-enabled devices. In-car GPS was once a luxury item. But over the last few years, thanks to the pioneering efforts of companies such as CSR and SiRF (now merged), GPS-enabled chip technology has become smaller, faster and more cost-effective. GPS systems, whether factory-fit in-dash, or aftermarket PND or car stereo-based, are now comfortably within the reach of everyman.

Moving forwards perhaps the biggest change on the horizon of in-car navigation is the ‘coming-together’ of different wireless technologies. GPS systems have now progressed to a point where they can bring in elements from other technologies to achieve a system that is greater than the sum of its parts.

The merger of CSR and SiRF has also seen a ‘coming together’: the market leader in short-range mobile handset connectivity technologies with the market leader in GPS chipsets. This combination of skills makes the new enlarged CSR the best qualified company to address this brave new world of in-car GPS.

Increased interconnectivity in converged navigation devices
Much like mobile phones, in-car GPS-enabled devices are fast approaching the point where it no longer makes sense simply to speak of separate ‘a GPS unit’ or ‘media centre’. Such devices are converging to fulfil multiple functions; a trend that will only continue as components become smarter through increased integration of multiple technologies and ultimately incur less cost to incorporate into designs. Forward-thinking companies are already starting to view in-car radios in terms of their overall potential, and looking at how to integrate additional connectivity technologies to ensure the functions co-operate to best effect. This opens up many fascinating possibilities.

CSR’s existing automotive products such as RoadTunes and RoadRunner already address the growing popularity of wireless audio streaming in-vehicle, and the importance of the car's media player as the hub of in-car electronics functions. CSR predicts that in-vehicle systems will see an increased coming-together of wireless technologies. Manufacturers of navigation/infotainment devices will have to understand these trends and develop their new solutions to meet user expectations for increased connectivity requirements.

In the near term, improvements to the wireless hands-free calling experience, currently streamed via Bluetooth to a compatible factory-fit or aftermarket in-car device, will be augmented with better, more reliable phonebook synchronisation using the Phone Book Access Profile (PBAP). The market can also expect to see a higher call quality with the adoption of wideband speech and other near-end enhancements. This will have significant implications for speech-recognition dialling in the car, which reduces physical contact between the driver and his phone and leads to safer driving when making or taking calls on the road. In addition Bluetooth stereo streaming will gain even wider adoption as it has matured significantly in recent years and now features a user-friendly in-vehicle control mechanism with the Audio-Visual Remote Control Protocol (AVRCP) v1.4 specification.

Looking at the future of the PND, the comparatively larger screen and longer battery life make the PND an ideal device to use as a 3rd screen within the car to provide users with easy access to their phone’s text messages and emails via Bluetooth connection. This is only the beginning and now the question is what additional functionality can be integrated into the PND to help carve out its future role in the automotive market.

Perhaps of the most exciting prospects on the horizon for the in-car navigation/infotainment sector is Wi-Fi. Support for Wi-Fi has now been adopted within the Bluetooth specification as of the 22nd April this year. The new Bluetooth specification Bluetooth v3.0 + High Speed (HS) is expected to make it into in-vehicle devices in 2012. With the adoption of Wi-Fi as the first AMP (Alternate MAC PHY) to enable a “fast data pipe” for Bluetooth, a new and exciting array of use cases are opening up to the navigation/infotainment device designer. Consumers will be able to synchronise a complete music collection, photo gallery, video or other media collection in a fraction of the time it takes traditional Bluetooth radios. For business users maps, telematics, route, diagnostics and a host of other information taken and or generated on long journeys can now be easily and quickly be accessed via Bluetooth v3.0 +HS from the navigation/infotainment device. Files can be transferred to a compatible device without the need for physical wired connections to the vehicle and in a fraction of the time it has taken in the past.

In addition to this CSR views internet connectivity within PNDs via a cellular connection on the horizon. At this point Wi-Fi will have a role to play in connecting portable gaming devices, laptops etc to the internet-connected device. Cellular connectivity will also have a role in downloading and uploading a navigational device’s map and telemetry data.

It’s truly an exciting time to be working in automotive connectivity. With the range of functions on offer in future devices, and the market-leading capabilities of SiRF and CSR’s location and connectivity technologies enabling the development and manufacture of the next generation of navigation plus connectivity products.

www.csr.com

INCISOR WPANEL 8: The value of social media to wireless marketeers

Welcome to this feature in which the Incisor WPANel speaks on a topic of interest to short-range wireless industry observers.

The members of the Incisor WPANeI are the senior executives from the organisations that manage the administration and development of Bluetooth, DECT/CAT-iq, EnOcean, NFC, Wi-Fi, UWB/Wireless USB and ZigBee technologies.

The ongoing WPANel members are 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 and Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. Each of these is an expert in short-range wireless technology. Due to work pressures, Mr Koichi Tagawa, chairman of the NFC Forum has had to pull out. His place on the Incisor WPANel should be filled soon by another executive from the NFC sector.

Last month the WPANel group gave us their views on high energy WPAN technologies? These can be read in last month’s issue.

This month’s topic: The value of social media to wireless industry marketeers
In a conversation with a client recently, it became apparent that even to business people, social media, as represented by Twitter, Facebook and quasi-business/social networking sites such as LinkedIn, were becoming a vital if not dominant aspect of the marketing roadmap. This made me stop and think. It is undeniable that the worlds of marketing and media are changing. We all know that traditional publications are having a hard time, because the business world is no longer sure that printed media is the right channel to use to promote itself - thanks heavens that Incisor has always been an Internet publication!

This paradigm change in marketing tactics applies across the board, from phone companies, to car companies, to fertiliser manufacturers, banks, software companies and yes, even semiconductor companies. Everybody knows that the Internet is where they need to be, but very few know how to use it. And it just got more complicated because all of the attention now is on social networking – the likes of Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, MySpace etc, etc. I am on all of them, and most active on Twitter (www.twitter.com/vholton) where my ‘reach’ is now to more than 6.5 million people around the world (don’t believe me? Check out my score at independent Twitter analyser: http://twinfluence.com - score for @vholton - Reach=6,547,477, Rank=#13,066 – that is out of 23 million Twitter users, by the way), Facebook (www.facebook.com/vince.holton) and LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/vinceholton ). I welcome all of you to connect with me on any of these sites.

When my client contact told me that her company would be making a sea-change in the way that it marketed itself to the world, and that social networking would be an extremely important facet of the marketing and PR programme, my first thoughts were – how can this possibly be relevant to B2B marketing within the tech industry? Well, my client and several e-gurus whose views I know and trust all tell me that it is. And the industry is already Twittering – EnOcean for one, and even huge, traditional companies like Texas Instruments!

For me this is an extremely important topic and colours the way I will operate my own business from this point forwards. I asked the WPANel member to give me their thoughts on this increasingly important subject. Ideas for consideration included:

• Do you consider that social networking has a role for the short range wireless industry?
• Are you actively using social networking today to promote your technology or your company?
• How important do you consider this technique to be, now and in the next 10 years?
• Is it possible to successfully blend content that a wide audience will find interesting, with the need to distribute your company- or technology-specific messages to the key contacts that you want/need them to get to?
• Do we honestly believe that volume of contacts is important – “our viral video was viewed by 150,000 people on Facebook” or is it getting to the right contacts that is still the most important – “our message got to 1500 people, but we know that they were 1500 people that were really important to us, and we weren’t wasting money chasing tens of thousands of clicks that were of no use to us at all”?

The panel’s views are below. If you have views, or suggestions as to how we can develop the WPANel concept, or topics you would like to see covered, email me at vholton@incisor.tv.

Vince Holton
Publisher, Incisor & IncisorTV

The Incisor WPANel responds:
Will short range wireless technology really change our lives?

Mike Foley
Executive director, Bluetooth Special Interest Group
Twitter. Facebook. Social media in general seems to be all the rage these days, yet nobody seems to know what to do with it. These questions aren’t limited only to businesses or industry organizations. When I attended the D7 Conference earlier this year, Biz Stone and Evan Williams the co-founders of Twitter were the first speakers and even they didn’t have a clue regarding how to capitalize on social media in general and Twitter specifically. This was discouraging because they clearly have more to gain, or lose, than I do with the presumption being that they have spent significantly more time and energy trying to answer these questions.

Since the Twitter gang isn’t providing any insights, we are left to our own devices. Currently I find social media interesting, but am not yet convinced it is important. We are engaging. We are learning. We are experimenting. I’ve written a blog for years now. I tweet (@WirelessMike). I have a Facebook page. The Bluetooth SIG tweets (@BluetoothSIG) new products that are qualified. The Bluetooth SIG has a LinkedIn group for people interested in Bluetooth technology. We are exploring a Bluetooth SIG Facebook page, but haven’t implemented that yet.

The obvious question is: “Are these tools returning dividends for the Bluetooth SIG?” Unfortunately, the answer isn’t so obvious. My blog is well read and a great tool to deliver SIG news to a broad audience. However, I find it interesting that my annual pumpkin carving posts, with pictures, are some of the most viewed each year…

My hunch is these social media tools are all going to play a part of our online strategy, but not be our online strategy. One of the challenges we face is getting our messages to the proper audience. For example, when we start a new work group to create a specification enabling a new use case, we want to get related information to our members as well as to non-member companies that may be interested in that use case. This is a vastly different audience than consumers – a group we wish to educate about the enormous assortment of products they can obtain to simplify their lives. Social media can help us to reach these very different groups. We may evolve our Bluetooth.com web site to directly target the consumer while Bluetooth.org provides a portal into the Bluetooth SIG for members and businesses. A Bluetooth SIG Facebook page could be used to target consumers utilizing that service and guide them to the content on Bluetooth.com. Similarly, the LinkedIn group for members could be used to communicate with business professionals and drive them to content on Bluetooth.org.

I’m hoping that social media, utilized in this way, will prove to be a powerful communication tool for the Bluetooth SIG. Time will tell. I’m sure we won’t get it right the first time and will continually be tweaking our tactics while keeping true to our strategy.



Erich Kamperschroer,
Chairman, the DECT Forum

We strongly believe that social networks already play a major role in private and B2B communication today. There will be national elections at the end of September in Germany and at this time all of the political parties that are fighting for voters are intensively utilising Twitter & Co. for their election campaigns. Are we sure that Barack Obama would have succeeded in the November 2008 US elections without having focused on new media and social networking for his very “modern” campaign?

For almost 20 years, DECT as a short range wireless technology has ensured that people can connect, speak to each other and definitely do social networking privately and also for business reasons. With CAT-iq devices and the connection to the Internet the new technology provides not only voice but also text communication. There is definitely a major trend to connecting to friends and business partners from all over the world. It is quite exciting to see what kind of products or devices will be provided by the industry to meet these needs and to guarantee local and mobile access to these platforms.

It seems to be already a fact - if you watch the behaviour of young people - that they are quite familiar with Twitter & Co., and it looks that social networks are already replacing text messaging via SMS, which is quite costly if you use it extensively.

Marketing strategies can use social networks to interact with people or target groups. Not to make money but to use the social communities to spread and leverage your messages, products, and services. With social networking you can benefit from the advantages of the Internet: it is global, available 24/7, and it is interactive. Therefore social network marketing will replace classical advertising – in the same way as digital online media are replacing the long-term dominant print media and even TV.


Edgar Figueroa,
Wi-Fi Alliance Executive Director
With apologies to Incisor’s readership, Edgar Figueroa regrets that he was not able to submit his text in time for this issue. Normal service will be resumed next issue!


Bob Heile
Chairman, ZigBee Aliance
Social networking’s role varies depending on communication needs of both the sender and the receiver. If the people you are want to talk with prefer to do so via a social network, then you have your answer. There’s no doubt that social networking is transforming how many are communicating with stakeholders – from consumers, analysts, media, government, engineers, developers, etc. This seems quite similar to the way e-mail transformed our lives -- for better or worse. We’re definitely in a transition phase right now and I’m sure these new communication channels will stay around, and a few may even fall out of favor and die off.

We’re evaluating each social network platform to see what makes the most sense for the ZigBee Alliance. We’ve launched an official Twitter feed. Outside the Alliance, there are ZigBee forums on social platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. As for its importance in a few years, I consider it less a technique and more of an evolution on how we are communicating. We will continue to evaluate what channels will bring the most ROI for us. It’s important for everyone to know that you can’t be everything to everyone. What’s important is to prioritize your key audiences and provide relevant information. Am I interested in reaching a graphic designer on Twitter? Probably not. Am I interested on reaching a potential member with questions about ZigBee? Absolutely.

For some groups, having a viral video viewed by millions of people may make sense. But what it comes down to is reaching the right audience with a message that informs and inspires action. The ZigBee Alliance works to engage with others on a B2B-level and that requires addressing topics that are meaningful to them. Our strategy is not chasing eyeballs on a mass scale, but generating dialogue about ZigBee with companies developing home automation products, and utilities expediting their smart grid development plans. We also want to talk with the engineer that wants to be part of the next ZigBee effort to provide new products and services to a new marketplace.


Graham Martin,
Chairman, EnOcean Alliance
When I first looked at some of the new social networking tools such as Twitter I quite honestly thought – what is the world coming to? Do we not have real lives? It is obvious that media and communication is shifting from print to on-line, but do we really want or need to know what somebody just had for lunch or what is the name of his new pet hamster? However, after hiring a top notch young and dynamic PR Manager, I was soon to see a more complete picture and drastically change my tune.

Social networking and media sites such as Linked-in, Xing, Twitter and You-Tube are becoming highly important and effective additional ways of providing messaging and information also amongst business communities. As opposed to thousands of e-newsletters and e-advertisements people receive and rarely have the time to read, social networking and media gives business professionals and companies the choice of informing themselves on a particular subject or company when they wish to. They can collect relevant information on specific topics, for examples in various forums or groups, and communicate directly with relevant partners in this field. There is also the snowball effect, where various individuals or companies forward interesting information to their contacts which can within a very short timeframe lead to your message spreading virally reaching thousands or even millions of relevant people with minimum cost and effort.

Social networking will not replace traditional PR methods, but is already becoming an innovative addition that will become an important part of any modern PR strategy. This is a very positive evolution and I am sure that we will see a huge growth of this media platform in the near future.

EnOcean was one of the first wireless companies to become active in social media with its own You Tube channel and Twitter account. Others such as Texas Instruments are also actively Twittering and I am sure many more will soon follow these innovative leading companies. If you don’t want to be left behind and are looking for more information on EnOcean or an example of social networks feel free to start at http://twitter.com/EnOcean_en. or www.youtube.com/enocean.

The Only Alternative: Bluetooth and Ultra-wideband

by Dean Anthony Gratton

The potential and associated applications for Ultra-wideband have been promised by numerous manufacturers over what may seem to be an eternity. We have all become very excited about the real possibility of Ultra-wideband delivering high-speed connectivity with data rates that are comparable to its USB-enabled counterpart (if not more!). We have to be careful not to portray an obituary listing in this feature, but rather focus more on a reflection of a collage of anecdotes that have led to the current status of the technology. Moreover, we need to address this current status, along with understanding the existing high-speed offering (that is Wi-Fi), and to review the long-term benefits of Ultra-wideband’s integration into the Bluetooth specification.

With good intent
In reality, the WiMedia Alliance has been disbanded and inevitably it will soon cease any administration activities for its former members along with terminating the evolution of the technology completely – this responsibility shall soon be bestowed to the Bluetooth SIG. Likewise, many Ultra-wideband silicon manufacturers have been unable to sustain a presence during an economic crisis where companies have folded and the more steadfast have simply culled their staff. Roberto Aiello, former co-founder and CTO, Stacatto Communications concurs “the economy didn't help in the last couple of years, because it made it more difficult to raise the capital required to complete the commercialization.”

As we fondly recall Ultra-wideband’s journey, the early days of the technology’s promise was filled with extensive paperware slideshows, all demonstrating many use case scenarios. It was these use case scenarios that bestowed our over-active imaginations with the promise of true high-speed wireless connectivity, albeit over relatively short-distances (less than 10m or so). The motivation was a simple one; penetrate as many consumer electronic products as possible.

A frustrating time for all involved
Ultra-wideband allowed us to conceive, with a sense of proportioned reality, that a digital video camera, for example, could realistically wirelessly stream high-quality audio and video content to the TV. The technology purported ultra low power usage, deeming the technology suitable for most, if not all, electronic products, so the excitement was certainly well-founded. But alas, the technology endured an unfortunate rollercoaster ride in its endeavour to become the one and only wireless high-speed solution. Its early onset was marred by a battle of which is better: orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) or direct sequence Ultra-wideband (DS-UWB)? Indeed, two very different schemes, which are incompatible.

The battle commenced: the two technology camps took their respective corners and burdened the technology’s full introduction to market and adoption by other manufacturers for a number of years. In the meantime, a minority of manufacturers suitably massaged their egos, in turn, stifling the growth of Ultra-wideband – ultimately, this led to uncertainty and frustration for all involved. In the ensuing years two alliances formed, each touting their respective Ultra-wideband flavours, namely the WiMedia Alliance and the UWB Forum – the latter group were advocates of the DS-UWB offering. The eventual “we prefer this one” accolade was handed to the WiMedia Alliance and its first product offering deflated the industry, as the intensely proclaimed data rates of up to 480Mbps were nowhere to be seen. The OFDM frequency scheme assured us of minimal interference from other neighbouring wireless technologies – surely, a wireless utopia steeped with true untetherred connectivity. It’s like offering an elixir to eternal life in one magic shot – one sip, that’s all you need, and a sustainable and unrelenting wireless connection can be yours!

Humph – such a depressing tale, but nonetheless it’s all based on true events!

The elusive high-speed accolade
Meanwhile, the Bluetooth SIG was looking to enhance its technology portfolio. With Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH) and Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) the Bluetooth SIG offered the industry several new techniques that potentially reduced interference from neighbouring wireless devices (using AFH); plus a solution with EDR to polish up its high-speed offering (at a modest 3Mbps). Alas, it still wasn’t enough to achieve high-speed throughput for streaming video.

It seemed the streaming video trophy still remained elusive and out of its grasp for the Bluetooth SIG. Moreover, the Bluetooth SIG had to react quickly, since the IEEE, with a new and improved flavour of its 802.11 portfolio (despite it being marketed as a ‘draft’ version), was dangerously clipping the Bluetooth SIG’s heels. The 802.11n offering increased data rates, along with backward compatibility with previous generations of 802.11 products – some astonishing foresight not to entirely nark the existing consumer-base! Finally, with 802.11n, the industry had in its possession a viable wireless high-speed solution that would potentially deliver streaming video content for a host of electronic products and gadgets.

Living with or without you
The kerfuffle of the Ultra-wideband story and associated rumours of its demise have been bubbling around for over a year or so now. In fact, Incisor featured a story titled, The Tortoise and The Hare in November’s 2008 issue highlighting the Bluetooth SIG’s introduction of its Alternative MAC/PHY layer (or AMP). Indeed, many in the industry were somewhat agog and aghast at the partnering of what was once considered to be two competing technologies – “Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are what?” Incidentally, Incisor recalls a conversation with Alan Woolhouse, former Vice President of Marketing & Communications at CSR, who shed some further insight “Bluetooth over 802.11 is not done through a merger of technologies. Bluetooth is just using 802.11 as a fast radio to transmit Bluetooth data.” Woolhouse intimated at the time, “Testing for the new specifications is already ongoing - when this will be completed is unknown at this point, as three interoperable prototypes have to be shown to work and pass a comprehensive test specification to be "ratified" by the Bluetooth SIG.” Initial feedback seems to suggest that this would be completed around the second quarter of 2009, although Incisor hasn’t been privy to any new announcements surrounding the success (or failure) of interoperability testing.

What is clear however, is that most consumer electronic products use both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, as part of their standard feature set, so Bluetooth piggybacking, if you like, Wi-Fi to transmit or receive large data, seems to make sense. But, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi serve two very different audiences – two technologies providing different use case scenarios. Well, we have certainly been told that over the last decade or so, right?

The Only Alternative
Anyhow, what some individuals might not be aware of is that the Bluetooth AMP architecture permits radio independence for the Bluetooth software stack. In other words, the AMP architecture is an hardware abstraction layer (or HAL) permitting any radio, along with a suitable abstraction interface, to coexist. The AMP proposal suggested that no modifications were required to the actual Physical (PHY) or Media Access Control (MAC) layers, but instead, the solution offered a “four address” packet format, which would be used to transmit Bluetooth-specific data. Naturally, this would ensure that a Wi-Fi access point could coexist in harmony, allowing both devices to transmit and receive data simultaneously (at this time, it’s a theoretical assumption).

So, in essence the Bluetooth SIG could plug in either a Wi-Fi or an Ultra-wideband radio assuming that a suitable abstraction layer was present. The intent of the architecture proposed by the Bluetooth SIG would suggest that it perhaps wanted to integrate Ultra-wideband into its future specification, but when we spoke with Mike Foley, Executive Director of the Bluetooth SIG, he commented “UWB could become a part of the Bluetooth specifications if the WiMedia members agree to contribute that work to the Bluetooth SIG such that it can be adopted as a Bluetooth specification. If and when that occurs is up to those companies that participated in WiMedia. Since this occurring is such an uncertainty, UWB is not on the Bluetooth SIG roadmap. It can’t be added until it is known that the technology can be used in a Bluetooth specification. Doing so before then would be premature.” Eh? What was that Mike? Nonetheless, Roberto Aiello, former co-founder and CTO, Statacco Communications, vehemently supports the technology transfer to the Bluetooth SIG, saying “the WiMedia [Alliance] made the right decision to offer the technology transfer to WirelessUSB and Bluetooth, because with all the standardization heavy lifting behind us, those groups can control the whole product certification.”

If you build it, they will come
The AMP architecture may paint an idyllic picture, but the Bluetooth SIG can’t surely expect to utilise Wi-Fi as a long-term high-speed solution? It would imply that products targeted as high-speed would need to incorporate both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi is sometimes notorious for being power hungry and an application overkill. The advantages and future for Bluetooth wireless technology must lie with Ultra-wideband being the only alternative. It enables the Bluetooth SIG to truly offer an independent high-speed solution (that is, away from Wi-Fi) and offer more bespoke applications that can ultimately take advantage of the inherent low power characteristics of Ultra-wideband and not just its high-speed attributes. Nevertheless, Aiello is adamant that WirelessUSB-enabled products will continue to move forward despite the WiMedia Alliance’s demobilisation, as he reckons “the standard is complete, the certification program is in place, and some products are shipping.”

Perhaps, the Bluetooth SIG’s hesitation at this stage is simply based on their conclusion that Ultra-wideband still isn’t ready for them? Despite the standardisation process being in place for the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), the SIG instead provides a short-term solution with Wi-Fi that still meets the need for the ever-so impatient consumer. Moreover, it may be biding its time to ensure that when Bluetooth v4.0 (this is nothing more than pure speculation) appears it’s fully prepared to deliver the promise of high-speed wireless streaming audio and video content with ease and, dare we say, simplicity.


About the Author
Dr Dean Anthony Gratton is a bestselling author, writer and telecommunications consultant. He has authored several patents, contentious articles and a number of bestselling books on wireless technology. He has worked within the telecommunications industry for over sixteen years and provides consultancy to a number of high profile companies.

You can contact Dean at incisor@deangratton.com and follow him on Twitter @grattonboy, but you can read more about his work at www.deangratton.com.

The emerging three screens platform

By Stephen Wood

This article is the first in a six part series written by Stephen Wood, discussing the convergence of the Smart Phone, Personal Computer, and Television. Each article will discuss an event or technical capability which is forecast to emerge in the near future. These forecasts were developed for Incisor using new techniques in market analysis that provide a context against which Incisor readers could evaluate the value of innovations entering the market.

In the early 1980s, the personal computer emerged as a platform which combined the microprocessor, memory, display and I/O into a single system. This physical platform transformed the world. In the 1990s, the Internet emerged as a logical platform composed of PCs, browsers, and the telephone network. Like the PC before it, the Internet has radically changed how we conduct business and entertain ourselves. And now, another major platform is beginning to be defined. The Three Screens Platform will connect the smart phone, the personal computer and the television together into a common, collaborative system which blends the capabilities of their respective networks. Over time, it will also connect the automobile and the point of sale into the platform as well.

Just as the PC and the Internet emerged to fill needs that the mainframe and data networks could not readily satisfy, the three screens platform is emerging to address needs which have proven to be challenging for the PC, mobile phone and television to satisfy independently. As an example, consider the PC’s track record on ease of use and reliability. Do you ever encounter the “blue screen of death” on your television? Does your refrigerator ever get a virus? How long does your microwave take to boot up? Maybe you have to pay for food repeatedly when you move it from the freezer to the oven. These problems with the PC have been well known for several decades but remain unresolved.

In addition to solving these long term problems, the emergence of the three screens platform will expand the scope of applications that can be addressed. Imagine being able to select music and video to take with you on a vacation trip. This content is quickly downloaded to your smart phone. From there, the content is uploaded into your car. The music becomes part of virtual radio stations that can be selected by pressing radio buttons. Unlike the radio, songs that grate can be skipped. There are also no dead zones to fall into. If you run out of content while on your trip, more can be purchased from kiosks at gas stations, rest stops and stores along the way. The functionality added by the three screens platform will allow for the smooth movement of content between various devices and across various networks with minimum of user intervention.

To do this task, new capability will need to be added to each of the component platforms to allow them to interact in the common system. Here is a description of some of the missing pieces.

Trust - A chain of trust needs to be established from the hardware up through each of the software elements. Trust is required to conduct e-commerce transactions and to suppress malware.

Identification – A combination of hardware and software must be able to identify the user at the user’s request in a verifiable manner. This capability enables reliable access control, improved financial transaction authorization and membership.

Management – The overhead of managing the devices and the network needs to be passed to network administrators to offload work from the consumer and to increase the reliability of the network. The end nodes in the devices must be able to respond to management requests.

Data Shuttle Protocols – Many transactions that will occur should not require the direct input of the user. This includes data exchanges for personalization data collection and context monitoring. A uniform process for making these authorized, but independent exchanges needs to exist.

Composability Protocols – Devices need to be able to share capability to create an optimum user experience. For instance, a smartphone user may wish to temporarily connect to and drive a keyboard and monitor in order to create a short Powerpoint document. Composability protocols allow authorized and available resources to be identified and recruited.

Traffic Scaling – Transferring a HD video stream for viewing on a smart phone consumes both time and power. Methods must be created by which the content transferred can be well matched to the intended user experience.

Personalization / Context Awareness/ Privacy – The options available to the user at any given moment could become overwhelming, requiring almost continuous user input and an unacceptably high level of knowledge on the part of the user. To avoid this, the system must be able to collect data about “normal” use patterns in order to infer how the user intends to use the device. When data is collected, the aggregators must abide by existing laws governing privacy. Where laws do not exist, the privacy policies should still guarantee consumers a responsible degree of protection.

The elements required for this platform were not randomly chosen. To get this list, it was first necessary to assemble the applications which were to be enabled by the new platform. Each of these applications was then broken down into the functional blocks that would be needed to run it. And finally, when the list of functional blocks was aggregated, those which were needed across a significant percentage of applications were considered to be part of the platform. Those listed in a small percentage of applications are treated as options. To get a feel for some of the applications that were used, consider personalization as an application.


Know me, show me …
Personalization is a hot category of late. This technique involves collecting information about a user’s consumption patterns and using that to suggest future consumption. Amazon uses it to recommend books. Google uses it to place banner ads that are related to the search being performed. Tivo uses it to recommend and acquire other television programs that you may wish to watch. Taken to a more extensive level than is being done today, one would collect consumption information from any available point of consumption and use that to perform more exhaustive analysis. This would include gaming use, energy consumption, e-commerce purchases, video traffic patterns, voice call use, etc. Obviously, given the potentially intrusive nature of this development, one would also like to see a strong privacy policy simultaneously introduced.

Personalization of this type requires data collection that performs to agreed levels of accuracy. It requires methods by which to transfer data to an aggregation point where profiles can be drawn. It needs to make sure that the data cannot be spoofed or corrupted. Advertisers will depend upon this data to set rates and to monitor ad effectiveness. Likewise, the data being transferred needs to be secure to avoid eavesdropping which might potentially allow an unauthorized party to violate user privacy. All of these requirements and more were fed into the platform definition.

Shifting sands
Just as the technical markets and the business world evolved in response to the introduction of the PC and the Internet, the introduction of the three screens platform can also be expected to generate a lot of change. Some of the changes will be in the form of new applications while others will be in the form of major changes to existing platforms and market ecosystems.

As an example, consider the relationship between the smart phone and the PC. Over the last forty years, the PC has evolved through the desktop and the notebook and is now moving into the handheld generation. The handheld generation of the PC is the smart phone. This step causes telephony and computing to converge. The emergence of the three screens platform will enable the smart phone generation to work with the desktop and the notebook generations more completely.

Recognize that the smart phone has certain limitations in terms of its user interface, its battery size and its memory capacity which make it ideal for mobile applications, but deficient for work which stresses these functional blocks. For instance, it would be inconvenient to create a detailed Powerpoint presentation on a smart phone due to the limitations of the user interface. To compensate for this, the three screens platform functionality needs to allow the smart phone to temporarily exploit the functionality of a desktop or notebook (through docking) to expand the user interface while it is needed and while the user is stationary and then to conveniently disconnect and allow the smart phone to become mobile again when the work is done.

Operator challenges
As an example of a significant change in the ecosystem due to the three screens platform, consider events from the perspective of a quad play network operator. It benefits the network operator to connect the networks that they have together as tightly as possible. For instance, a wireless mobile operator wishing to create a video service can only deliver video via an expensive WAN link. By contrast, an operator that has wired video operations as well as wireless mobile operations has the option of creating a video service where video is delivered to a set top box and then transferred to the mobile device via a LAN or PAN link. They have access to more bandwidth and more cost effective delivery to make a business. By connecting the networks closely, customer churn is reduced and profitability can be optimized.

Additionally, a quad play network operator will be in a position to collect more consumption information to use for personalization of advertising. Instead of being limited to just telephony data, a quad play operator will be able to draw upon television traffic, Internet traffic, telephony, any connections which the mobile phone might eventually make (i.e. e-commerce, gaming, applications, location). When this data is combined, it enables much more precise profiling of a consumer and therefore makes a much more attractive solution for advertisers looking to deliver messages to a target audience. This enables the network operator to charge more for its superior targeting ability.

The quad play operator benefits from the three screens platform and is in a position to encourage and direct its evolution. This will tend to move the quad play operator into a control position in the computing ecosystem in a similar manner to the way that they own a control position in the mobile telephony and television ecosystems. The emergence and full development of the three screens platform and ecosystem will take several years to occur, but the speed with which it emerges will accelerate as manufacturers become aware of the market’s .

Additional information about the three screens platform and other upcoming market events can be found at www.mappingthewhitespaces.com.


Stephen Wood has spent the last eight years developing a series of behavioral models which explain the behavior of high tech markets and which provide insights about upcoming events. These models provide the basis for the projections described in this series. Additionally, Stephen has spent the last twenty years doing market analysis and product management in PAN, WAN and LAN technologies. Most recently, he held the role of President for the WiMedia Alliance in UWB personal area networking. Stephen’s website at www.mappingthewhitespaces.com discusses his models and forecast. He can be contacted at wood.stephen@verizon.net