The Bluetooth Revolution

Bluetooth a technology that over the last couple of years have changed the way that different electronic devices communicate. Before bluetooth to connect devices you need cords and wiring, bluetooth’s aim is to get rid of all that by connecting things through low energy wireless networking connections working on a 2.45 ghz radio frequency to transmit data. This frequency is split into different channels so that your bluetooth-enabled products can receive and transmit data from different sources simultaneously, here is a wonderful diagram and description of that process called spread-spectrum frequency hopping. At this low power frequency you can transmit data from 10 meters away as well a synchronize data for instance if you put a contact into your phone if your computer is with in range it will also be recorded on your computer. You have probably seen people walking down the street and talking to themselves until you realize they are actually talking on a headset. Those headsets are an example of bluetooth technology where a cell phone sends a call to an already connected bluetooth enabled headset that answers the call. This is only one of the thousand possible applications for bluetooth technology. When bluetooth was first introduced it was mainly used in cell phones, computers and PDA’s put has now moved into thousands of different devices according to the official bluetooth website only 55% of bluetooth technology goes into the above mentioned categories. The rest go in technology as diverse as gaming consoles like PS3 to cars like the 2006 Dodge Charger. With few new cell phones being developed without bluetooth technology I can only imagine that in the close future all of our devices will be sending information to each other.
Blue tooth drastically affects organization through many different ways and has many good points that can help business. Firstly with employees using bluetooth technology information can be conveyed without connecting with wires that can be costly. Not only is it cost efficient but also it can make employees offices simpler by getting rid of the cords allowing them to for instance take a laptop out of the office (but only 10 m away) to show a co-worker and still be connected to a printer to print out a report. Another possible application for business is in a board meeting you can send files to everyone in the rooms PDA without using the energy that it would require to send an email. Also bluetooth is relative inexpensive to incorporate in a device. A big advantage of bluetooth that has big business drooling is the potential for marketing with bluetooth-enabled devices specifically cell phones. A possible marketing strategy is proximity marketing where every time a blue tooth enabled cellphone goes near a designated area it would send the consumer an advertisement. For example every tine a consumer walks near a movie theatre, they are sent the movies playing at the time or every time a consumer walks near a fast food restaurant they are sent the latest deal. Potentially organizations would have unlimited free marketing that could catch people when they are with in range to buy something from the business.
The biggest disadvantage to bluetooth technology is the security risk. This video shows how easy it is for anyone to manipulate your bluetooth-enabled devices and steal from you. In the video they show a form of hacking called bluebugging, which is when someone sees that your bluetooth on your phone is on so they connect to it and place calls using your cell phone. When this happens it won’t even tell you that you are connected to someone. The second type of security risk is bluejacking where someone sends your phone a business card (text message) and possibly can add himself or herself to your contact list. Also if you don’t have the right security potentially someone might be able to access important information from your devices without you knowing it. Another disadvantage of bluetooth is that if organizations can take advantage of your phone for marketing your phone would be eventually plagued by advertisement.


Reference:

Bluetooth Applications. (2001). Mobile Info. Retrieved September 28th 2007 from http://www.mobileinfo.com/Bluetooth/applic.htm

How Bluetooth Works. (2007). Howstuffworks. Retrieved September 27th 2007 from http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/bluetooth5.htm

Bluetooth. (2007). Wikipedia. Retrieved September 27th 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth

Real Hustle Bluesnrfing. (2007). YouTube. Retrieved September 28th 2007 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dltjEnrePxc

Product Directory. (2007). Bluetooth. Retrieved September 27th 2007 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dltjEnrePxc