Bluetooth and ZigBee—Fast‐Paced Standards Development Boosts Growth

Bluetooth has been one of the fastest growing innovations on the wireless market sector, with literally billions of Bluetooth products already in use. It was also one of the quickest in the sector to gain standards status and name recognition. Today, the accepted Bluetooth standard, IEEE 802.15.1, defines a uniform structure with global acceptance to ensure interoperability of any Bluetooth‐enabled device. The first commercial Bluetooth products were introduced at the International Consumer Electronic Show (CES), held in January 2000 in Las Vegas. Most Special Interest Group (SIG) members hoped to have Bluetooth‐enabled products for cellular phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and notebook and laptop computers ready for the holiday selling season of 2000. Special interests were inevitable in developing the standard. To help speed Bluetooth products to market, the SIG created an interim qualification program with somewhat relaxed interoperability testing.