Bluetooth growth in Asia

New forecast by analysts from ABI Research reveal that up a billion Bluetooth devices will be sold annually in Asia by 2013 following slow uptake initially.

Buyers were initially put off by high prices and technical problems as well as the range limitation if this form of wireless technology.

Last year IMS Research had forecast that the worldwide Bluetooth market would reach 1.8 billion units by 2012.

Currently the market for Bluetooth devices have been growing at an annual rate of around 40 percent since 2006 so this trend would bring the market up to 982 million units sold in five years time.

In South Korea a total of 51 percent of miles phones had Bluetooth and it is this positive uptake of the technology has caused a ripple effect for other devices.

Streaming music services on mobile networks has caused a surge in the uptake and demand of Bluetooth in mobile phones.

It is this increased consumer awareness that has made laptop manufacturers to consider Bluetooth as an easy and efficient way of transferring file and data and well as connectivity with peripherals such as digital cameras and printers.

LAN technologies are likely to provide the sternest competition, although Bluetooth does have a competitive advantage as it is also suitable for wireless audio which makes it more versatile.