The Not So Confusing Bluetooth Basics

Bluetooth technology has the potential to give vast numbers of people the same mindset as a Ham radio buff. Bluetooth technology delivers to the man on the street a way to exchange information using wireless technology. Bluetooth technology differs from the earlier forms of wireless technology by offering a Personal Area Network (PAN).

What is a PAN? It is a network that operates within a confined space, a space much smaller than the Local Area Networks that controlled the delivery of information in the first known wireless systems. Using short-range radio signals, the devices in a PAN exchange information between collections of diverse devices. Bluetooth technology allows for the exchange of information between a PDA, a mobile phone, a laptop, a PC, a printer, a digital camera and other mobile devices.

The first wireless technology introduced to the public used long-range radio signals, signals coming from satellites in space. Bluetooth technology uses 2.4 GHz radio signals. These short-range signals travel within a confined area. Therefore, the Bluetooth technology normally provides a single individual with either a mobile workstation or a mobile entertainment center.

Because the Bluetooth technology facilitates communications between mobile and stationary devices, the automobile industry has included the Bluetooth technology in certain vehicles. Acura, BMW, Toyota Prius and Lexus all supply car owners with access to a PAN. Such devices allow the car owner to receive messages about needed check-ups on parts of the car’s engine.

The science behind Bluetooth technology is not really very confusing. Discovery of a way to promote the Bluetooth technology has frustrated the marketers of that technology.

Their frustration stems largely from their misperceptions. For an example of those misperceptions, one might examine the comments on the website Extreme Tech. There one finds this statement: “Bluetooth’s main competition is a piece of wire. Wire is cheap, reliable and…so ubiquitous that you don’t even notice it.”

That statement underlines the difficulty that the marketers of the Bluetooth technology are going to have. There are in fact members of our society who do notice and object to large amounts of wire, especially when it is in a living room or a family room. Because our technology has advanced so rapidly, there are people alive today who remember a time when homes did not have many electrical wires.

Such individuals, usually older individuals, would no doubt welcome a way to let their grandchildren play computer games without creating a confusing array of wires in an area of the home where guests might be expected to appear. Such individuals might represent the group of consumers most apt to purchase devices with the Bluetooth technology, if only they could be clear about what it is.

That is why this article began with a mention of the Ham radio buffs. Many of our society’s oldest members recall the days when they watched fathers, uncles of older brothers play with simple radios. In fact, many of the first radio signals were picked-up by the operators of hand-made radios. If those same individuals could be encouraged to equate today’s Bluetooth technology with yesterday’s simplistic radios, then perhaps the market for the Bluetooth devices would suddenly take an upswing.

The real trick may be in devising a way to present this imagined marketing campaign. Obviously, it could not be presented using the Bluetooth technology; the individuals in this suggested target audience do not generally use Bluetooth technology. Perhaps they could be enticed to buy Bluetooth devices through the wise use of TV ads. However, the marketer would need to pack a great deal of information into one 60-second ad.

The above statement has been written by a woman who, in the year 2000, watched people in their 80s viewing TV ads for various websites. It was clear to any younger people in the room that those older and wiser souls did not understand what the ads were trying to sell. No doubt the same would be true of any short, Bluetooth ad that assumed familiarity with the more “conventional,” wireless technology.

Maybe the sort of ad that would catch the interest of those wizened souls would be one that showed someone tripping over a bunch of wires. They might relate to that.