I'm a little late with my Comdex coverage, so I'll keep things focused on what I think were the highlights of the show. I'll start with a technology that I thought was headed for the technology graveyard... Bluetooth.

Bluetooth Gains Momentum?

My biggest surprise was the number of working, useful Bluetooth products that I saw... and not just from small, relatively unknown companies. I'd made the rounds of the Bluetooth "pavilions" at previous shows and saw mostly non-functional products or unimpressive demos. I also was unable to obtain product for testing and review. This time, the demos were impressive and, if the folks who I spoke with come through, there should be plenty of product for testing!

I spent a good half hour with Dave Curl from TDKsystems at his stand in Palm's Solutions Pavilion while he demoed the blue5 adapter for the Palm Vx. Paired with an Ericsson T39m Bluetooth enabled phone (also a very cool product!), the blue5 allowed Dave to grab his email, HotSync, and browse the web from his Vx. The adapter is smaller than most "sled" type adapters, clipping onto the back of the Palm device instead of encasing it. The Ericsson phone allowed many of its functions to be controlled by the Palm via the Bluetooth link so that the phone didn't have to be touched throughout the demo. Very impressive! TDKsystems has other Bluetooth adapters in PC card and USB formats, and for the Palm m500, 505, and 125 (the blueM). All except the blueM are available everywhere (in the US via Primate Systems). US availability for blueM is expected shortly after regulatory approval. Nothing yet in CF or SD format, though, so PocketPC users will have to wait a little while. The main downside I see here is the pricing (although this is not unique to TDKsystems). At a suggested list of $199 for the blueM adapter, many folks may decide to wait until Bluetooth products deliver on their "less expensive than 802.11b" promise.

Another guy who got me pumped on Bluetooth's progress was Huy Do of Anycom, who snagged me while I was watching an HP Jornada demo. Anycom is part of RFI Mobile Technologies AG, one of Europe's largest mobile distributors, with over 37 years history in Germany, but I have to confess that I hadn't heard of them previously. But it looks like they've been successful in partnering with a number of large US companies such as National Semiconductor and Microsoft, so we'll probably be hearing more from them. Huy quickly demoed printing from his Anycom Bluetooth CF card) to an Bluetooth PocketPC CF card biz is Socket. I had only a brief conversation with them at their stand in the Microsoft Partner area, but their website's shop shows the card at $179 with immediate availability.

Palm "m" series users who are hungering for Bluetooth capability will have to wait a little longer. Palm delayed the December launch of their SD Bluetooth card (man is it small!) until at least Q1 02.

Many users will want their Bluetooth enabled PDAs to communicate with their LAN, so they'll need a Bluetooth Access Point. Axis Communications' (who I didn't see at the show) 9010 is a popular choice, but there were some other products at the show that caught my eye.

What I came away with was that Bluetooth momentum seems to be turning around. Where at the last Comdex, I didn't see demos of practical, useful applications, this year, I saw printing, HotSyncing, web browsing, and email retrieval demonstrated. Large US companies seem to be coming on board, too, with Compaq, HP, and Palm either demoing products or planning to introduce them in Q1 2002.

Of course, if Microsoft doesn't wave their wand of approval over Bluetooth, then frankly, it'll be screwed. But although Bluetooth missed the XP launch, I was told that Bluetooth will be back under the Microsoft tent soon (not by Microsoft, however). And, hey guys, get those prices down! $200 for PDA adapters and $150 for PC cards isn't going to cut it against under $100 802.11b cards. Take a lesson from what happened to 802.11b volume once prices came down.