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Aug. 13, 2008

According to IMS Research, overall, the industry-wide success in the Bluetooth automotive telephony market may not necessarily translate into the same success for other Bluetooth vehicle applications.

IMS says several major car makers now sell Bluetooth-enabled cars. One of them is Toyota. Yet Bluetooth for purposes such as audio/video streaming through car stereos is just beginning to gain popularity.

Today, most consumers are still unfamiliar with Bluetooth’s advanced audio distribution protocol, which enables stereo output. The technology is merely a geek’s luxury for now, in just 0.3% of new cars sold in 2007.

IMS analyst Filomena Berardi said “however, IMS predicts that this situation will change and as the number of A2DP-enabled peripheral devices increases so too will consumer adoption.”

“I think that Bluetooth low-energy will allow manufacturers to develop wireless sensors and the dual-mode head units. It will also mean that we might see a market for dealer-fit sensors. Bluetooth low-energy units can be fitted into the bumper and link around the car without wires, with no need to drill," said Berardi.

In addition, there is talk about developing on-board diagnostics, using a Bluetooth link for data streaming. This is an interesting prospect for car manufacturers. However, the temperature requirements for this application are a lot higher. Accordingly these requirements have to be met before this can be a reality,” said Berardi.

“The journey for Bluetooth in this industry has only just begun. There are still many undiscovered applications and it will be interesting to see how the roadmap for Bluetooth will pan out,” added Berardi.

However, IMS didn't make any public predictions about when that change will occur or how large the market will become. Much of it is still to be determined, Berardi concluded.

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Source: IMS.