Bluetooth Expert Rejects Claims That Bluetooth is Losing Ground -- Independent research figures shows Bluetooth outselling 802.11b in 2001

Eric Janson, vice president North America, CSR has rejected claims that Bluetooth will be limited to use as a cable replacement technology. Commenting on research published by IMS and Cahners In-Stat, showing that Bluetooth chipsets will outsell 802.11b chipsets in 2001, Janson denied that 802.11b is pushing Bluetooth out of major markets.

Matthew Towers, senior Bluetooth analyst for IMS commented, "this finding is particularly encouraging for Bluetooth as 802.11b chipsets have been shipping in volume since 1997, whereas 2001 is the first year of volume Bluetooth shipments. Our annual Bluetooth study predicted Bluetooth chipset shipments would rise from close to zero in 2000 to just over 10 million units in 2001, and the year will end not far from this figure. The 802.11b market is also growing fast, but shipments will still only be around the 6 million mark in 2001. We expect further dramatic growth in the Bluetooth market in 2002 as more products hit the market and consumer awareness of Bluetooth grows substantially".

"The markets for 802.11b and Bluetooth are very distinct and we see both succeeding in their respective markets," said CSR's Janson. "802.11b offers faster connection speeds and full corporate LAN functionality and hence is more likely to be used in notebook PC to LAN connections. But the higher cost, bigger footprint and higher power consumption of 802.11b means it will never be able to compete with Bluetooth in mass market personal area networks - mobile phones, PDAs and other personal devices."

"The research from IMS has already shown that Bluetooth sales are increasing rapidly. CSR's own sales attest to that fact. When sales of Bluetooth enabled mobile phones and other personal devices take off as expected, it is inevitable that consumers will demand Bluetooth connections to everything else in their lives -- and that includes their PCs. This is likely to shape the future of networking."

"Obviously, our position speaks for itself as stated in the title of our latest report, Bluetooth Overtakes 802.11x with 2001 Shipments on Track," said Joyce Putscher, director of converging markets & technologies and principal Bluetooth analyst for Cahners In-Stat Group.

"We see Bluetooth chipset unit growth from 524K in 2000 to 13.4 million this year, versus our April 2001 forecast of 13.6 million. That will result in Bluetooth chipsets overtaking 802.11x shipments of all flavours by almost a factor of two. This is a dramatic comparison to the flat 802.11b shipments this year. We expect a compound annual growth rate of over 300% in sales of Bluetooth chipsets over the next five years."

"Those who think it's going to be one technology or the other just don't get it," stated Putscher. "These two systems are designed primarily to do different things. Sure, for full-blown wireless LAN applications, you're going to have 802.11. But the bottom line is that you don't need a LAN for a great number of applications. Bluetooth will enable new ways of doing things wirelessly with more flexibility, and enable new ways of communicating such as "chat," exchanging e-business cards, and more, as well as connecting to the Internet."

This hot industry issue will be debated in a cross industry special session titled "Coexistence, Competition and Market Confusion: Getting the Facts Straight" at the premier North American Bluetooth SIG event of the year, the Bluetooth Developers Conference. CSR's Eric Janson, along with executives representing Dell, Microsoft, Mobilian, WIDCOMM and WLANA will come together on December 11, 2001 to present their viewpoints on this topic. To find out more, please go to: www.key3media.com/bluetooth.

About IMS

IMS specializes in producing highly detailed and focussed market research on the global electronics industry. It conducts both multi-client and bespoke custom research projects for multinational customers located in 40 countries worldwide. IMS has a particular focus on the wireless communications industry, analysing markets such as cellular, broadband wireless, mobile radio, wireless LANs and Bluetooth. IMS produced its first dedicated Bluetooth report in 1999 and has since regularly reported on this market. Its latest global study on the wireless LAN market was completed in November 2001.

Two reports are referenced in the above press release:

Global Opportunities for Bluetooth in Key Applications (July 2001) - Price $3900. Worldwide Market for Wireless LANs - 2001 Edition (Nov. 2001) - Price $3950

More information about IMS can be found at www.imsresearch.com.

About Cahners In-Stat Group
Cahners In-Stat Group ( www.instat.com) covers the full spectrum of digital communications research from vendor to end-user, providing the analysis and perspective that allows technology vendors and service providers worldwide to make more informed business decisions. It provides continuous information services covering the full spectrum of digital communications market research from data, voice and video communications, wireless to wireline, computing to Internet, and consumers to businesses. In-Stat delivers approximately 325 topical research reports per year as well as custom research and consultation services. In-Stat is a unit of Cahners Business Information ( www.cahners.com), the largest business-to-business information provider in the world, and a member of the Reed Elsevier plc group.

Full Bluetooth coverage commenced in 1999. Bluetooth reports published this year include:

Bluetooth Overtakes 802.11x with 2001 Shipments on Track (Nov. 2001) - Price $2495. 2001 Bluetooth Survey: Consumers vs. Enterprise (Aug. 2001) - Price $2495. Access Anytime, Anywhere: Bluetooth Will "Make it So"! (April 2001) - Price $3995. Bluetooth & Wi-Fi: The Crusade for Coexistence(Feb. 2001) - Price $995.

About CSR
CSR (Cambridge Silicon Radio) specializes in providing single-chip radio devices to the global market for short-range wireless communications, including Bluetooth(TM). The company's mission is to create the most highly integrated radio devices available, fabricated using standard CMOS technology, to provide its customers with the lowest cost of ownership of high quality digital radio.

CSR was the first company in the world to offer a true single-chip Bluetooth solution with a fully integrated 2.4GHz radio, baseband and microcontroller on one CMOS chip, with its BlueCore1. Together with external Flash ROM containing the CSR Bluetooth software stack, it provides a fully compliant solution for data and voice communications. Combined with an upper layer host software stack CSR is able to offer a one-stop-shop for customers requiring a complete Bluetooth end-to-end solution. BlueCore1 is now designed into nearly 50 percent of end-user products qualified to the Bluetooth 1.1 standard as listed on the qualified products page of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) website. CSR is headquartered in Cambridge, UK, with offices in Richardson, Texas, Tokyo, Japan, Singapore and Aalborg, Denmark.

More information about CSR can be found at www.csr.com

CONTACT:
Imagio / JWT
Media Contact:
Adam Ian Ganz, 206/625.0252
adamg@imagio.com
or
Cambridge Silicon Radio
Alan Woolhouse, +44(1223)392689
aw@cambridgesiliconradio.com

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