Analysis: Indian Bluetooth takes a big bite

Bluetooth work suits India
BANGALORE, India — Indian technology companies view Bluetooth technology with mixed feelings, with some having dropped out of the development race while others continue to bet on its future. The faithful include HCL Technologies, MindTree Consulting and Impulsesoft while dropouts after initial efforts include Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro Technologies.

Bluetooth-related activity in India covers a broad range including the development of baseband controllers, of protocol stacks, synchronizing applications for handheld devices, testing Bluetooth products, interoperability testing between Bluetooth devices from different vendors, and developing profiles for applications such as device control, audio/video data transfer, FTP and MP3 players.

Bluetooth technology developed in India is already on-board some of the world’s highest volume consumer products.

“In 2000 to 2001 there must have been 20 Indian companies into Bluetooth, but now only a third of them are into it. But we believe Bluetooth is here to stay; it is the leading and only proven short-range wireless technology in the market today,” said Vinod Deshmukh, executive vice president and chief technology officer, R & D Services, Mindtree Consulting Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore. Mindtree covers the spectrum of Bluetooth engineering activitiers with the exception of radio — its BlueWiz baseband controller, protocol stack and “EtherMind” application profiles conform to Bluetooth SIG version 1.2 and have been qualified for commercial readiness. It has either licensed technology to, or built complete Bluetooth systems for, Epson, NEC, Mitsubishi Electric and Asia Pacific Microsystems, among others. The Bangalore-based Impulsesoft has just announced the latest version of its multimedia solution for in-car entertainment, called iWiND 2.0. It licensed its “iWaltz” multimedia over Bluetooth system to Texas Instruments Inc. for mobile handset manufacturers. “The lead time of any wireless technology adoption and the severe hype surrounding Bluetooth lead to early disappointment. Most abandoned any kind of product model in Bluetooth and today, most Indian companies working on Bluetooth deem it one amongst their many service offerings,” said K. Srikrishna, president and chief executive officer, Impulsesoft Pvt. Ltd.