"Manufacturers won't reveal how many car kits have been sold. However, a Zelos Group June 2002 report estimates that there will be 750,000 car-kit shipments in 2003--and approximately 5 million by 2006."
Bluetooth Hits The Streets
Amy Wu, 07.07.03, 10:00 AM ET
NEW YORK - So far, the most interesting use for Bluetooth wireless technology to catch on among consumers has been the wireless hands-free headset for mobile phones. But the potential the technology holds is so much greater than that.
The folks at the Bluetooth Special Interest Group are hoping to spread the religion of Bluetooth much further in the coming months, and the place they've chosen to focus on next is in the car.
Sony Ericsson's Bluetooth car kit
It's the next logical step, says Mike McCamon, the industry group's executive director. "70% of all mobile-phone calls are taken inside the vehicle, so I'd think the most natural place for these car kits would be in your automobile," he says. "We see car kits as a key to mainstream consumers."
In case you missed it, Bluetooth is a wireless technology that connects electronic devices to each other over short distances. It's a great way to eliminate data cords that would otherwise make the connection between them. It officially launched in 2001 and the latest revision, version 1.2, debuted in June.
McCamon has his finger on something: There are currently an estimated 147 million mobile-phone users in America and 38% of them gab behind the wheel, according to a survey by Sony Ericsson, the joint mobile-phone venture of Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ) and Ericsson (nasdaq: ERICY - news - people ). In other words, kit manufacturers have to make a case for Bluetooth not just to mobile professionals and gadget fanatics but to soccer moms and the average Joe on the street.
Safety will likely play a key part of the message. In recent years, a growing number of legislators have been lobbying to ban cell-phone talking while driving, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that helps citizens lobby. Already, driving and talking on the cell phone is illegal in New York, and currently seven states including California have similar laws in the pipeline.
The American Automobile Association also argues that cell phones and cars don't mix. According to a 2001 AAA survey cell phones triggered 1.5% of accidents, said AAA's Mantill Williams. "It's the one thing that bothers people because it's the one distraction that people can see," Williams says.
Enter Sony-Ericsson's Bluetooth car kit. Playing on pending legislation and the start of the road trip-heavy summer vacation season, Sony Ericsson recently demoed its HCB-30 kit in a vanilla-colored Hummer. Here's how it works.
The minute Allen Mani, Sony Ericsson's regional training manager, climbed into the Hummer, a light on a matchbox-sized device installed near the ignition turned green, indicating that his Sony Ericsson T616 mobile phone (which itself was released on July 1) and the car kit had bonded. In Bluetooth lingo, this is called pairing the devices.
And because the address book and the device had been paired, the Bluetooth kit can automatically dial a phone call with a single voice command. The device can store up to 50 voice tags and--at the single press of a button--a call can be commanded to go directly into voicemail.
Nicky Csellak-Claeys, Sony Ericsson's North American marketing head, pointed out that in the future many other Bluetooth-enabled items such as the PDA and laptop computer could jive with the car kit too. The kit, launched in May 2003, sells for $249 and costs anywhere from $100 to $200 to install.
Sony Ericsson isn't the only one entering the new car-kit arena. Since March 2002, MobileAria, Delphi (nyse: DPH - news - people ), Motorola (nyse: MOT - news - people ), Nokia (nyse: NOK - news - people ), Parrot and Visteon (nyse: VC - news - people ) have made Bluetooth car kits.
The number of manufacturers making Bluetooth-enabled phones is going up too. According to SIG by early fall all cell-phone manufacturers in the U.S. will have a Bluetooth-enabled phone on the market.
Manufacturers won't reveal how many car kits have been sold. However, a Zelos Group June 2002 report estimates that there will be 750,000 car-kit shipments in 2003--and approximately 5 million by 2006.
