Bluetooth technology, the global standard for short range wireless communications, turns 10 years old this week. And it’s marking its birthday appropriately at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

While the idea of Bluetooth technology was born over a decade ago, the first products didn’t appear commercially until the year 2000. In that short time - a span of eight years - 1.5 billion Bluetooth enabled devices have been shipped, and the organization behind the technology, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, has grown from a handful of companies to 10,000 members.

“The first ten years of Bluetooth development has been amazing to watch,” said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director, the Bluetooth SIG. “From prototypes in 1998 to more than 1.5 billion devices on the market today, no other consumer technology has grown as fast in such a short period of time.”

The Bluetooth SIG qualifies Bluetooth products to a set of strict criteria to carry the Bluetooth brand – since 2000 when products became commercially available, the trade organization has seen a 13-fold increase in the number of products qualified each year. One of those products, the JayBird Bluetooth Stereo Headset, will be introduced this week at CES and the manufacturer, JayBird Gear LLC, will be honored at the Bluetooth SIG 10-year celebration party as the organization’s 10,000th member.

Bluetooth technology was named after a Danish king, King Harald Blatand, who had a penchant for snacking on blueberries and was known for uniting warring factions in what is now Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Uniting devices from different manufacturers and with different purposes, like computers from Apple and mice from Microsoft, is what Bluetooth technology is all about - all at a low cost, with low power consumption and a secure connection every time.

Consumer awareness of Bluetooth technology is at an all time high and the Bluetooth logo - a runic symbol of King Harald’s initials surrounded by a blue oval – is familiar around the globe. Most people use Bluetooth technology to wirelessly connect mobile phones to headsets or cars, use their mobile phones to transfer pictures, files and other data another phone, PC or printer, or listen to music wirelessly via Bluetooth enabled mp3 players and stereo headsets.

Applications

The technology initially came to consumers in the form of wireless headsets for talking hands-free on cell phones. Today, Bluetooth technology can be found in laptops, PDAs, cameras, printers, cell phones, mice and keyboards, MP3 players, speakers, cars, and even medical devices like heart monitors.

The Future

The Bluetooth SIG has brought together wireless technologies to create one wireless option for consumers worldwide. The Bluetooth SIG is working with the WiMedia Alliance to use ultra-wideband (UWB) technology as the high speed channel for Bluetooth technology. The organization also welcomed Wibree technology into the Bluetooth wireless fold in 2007 and began work on an ultra low power Bluetooth specification. Both are expected in prototyping phase in 2008 with availability in the first half of 2009.