September 20, 2000 – Motorola has received full certification from the Bluetooth standards body for two Bluetooth-enabled products promised earlier this summer, an internal PC card and an external Universal Serial Bus (USB) device. The software included in the applications is based on Microsoft's Windows operating system and has been integrated in Outlook.

Certification means Motorola's PCMCIA and USB products are fully compatible with the Bluetooth Consortium's specifications for the radio-wave technology established two years ago by founding members Nokia, Ericsson, IBM, Intel and Toshiba. The group now includes Microsoft, Lucent, Motorola, Mitsubishi and Sony, as well as more than 1,800 developers.

Entry-level Move by Motorola

Motorola's applications mark an important first-step for Bluetooth since they provide, via the internal and external linkages, a networking software solution for transmitting and receiving data between Bluetooth-enabled devices. Motorola is hoping that hardware developers will use its applications to build the devices that will someday be part of the Bluetooth vision: creating sophisticated applications that include peer-to-peer networking and personal area networking for cell phones, PDA's, computers, printers and other devices without the need for wires or cables.

Motorola's products, the first to bear the Bluetooth trademark, will be distributed to Toshiba and IBM before the end of this year for use in their computer products. Motorola also said it will extend the technology to other devices, including mobile phones. This summer Motorola announced that it was developing a Bluetooth-based wireless car-phone kit.

HP Joins Toshiba, IBM in Bluetooth Push

Hewlett-Packard this week announced an alliance with 3Com to offer Bluetooth computing via HP OmniBook and HP Pavilion notebooks. HP plans to beginning sell a $149 Bluetooth PC Card in November.

Toshiba said last week that it would begin shipping an optional Bluetooth PC card to the U.S. market on Sept. 25. The card, designed for its notebooks, debuted in Japan in August.

IBM's Bluetooth strategy centers, for now, around its ThinkPad model, which include a connector that allows for external devices, such as Bluetooth transmitters.