Apple gets Bluetooth bug

HIDDEN BEHIND Apple Computer’s summer rollout of protocols and software — dubbed iSync, iChat, and Rendezvous — is a set of strongly held beliefs about the future of pervasive devices.

Senior management at the Cupertino, Calif.-based company believes wireless access to corporate data will coalesce around synchronization software, Bluetooth-enabled handsets, notebooks, desktops, and wireless carriers.

At the top of that list sits Bluetooth, the wireless specification that Apple thinks will help cell phones evolve into powerful devices capable of accessing corporate data via its xServ and Mac OS X on one side, and potentially the consumer-designed iPod music player on the other (see ” A good companion “).

Sitting at one end of this wave, Apple executives maintain that the iPod and its 20GB bootable hard drive are not designed for corporate application. Yet the device is generating buzz among the tech savvy for its storage capabilities and ability to leverage iSync and Firewire.

These capabilities have seen the iPod wade into murky waters as potential enterprise use in this connected, file-sharing context. In turn, this leaves open a question as to what extent iPod’s sync capabilities cross over to meet the controversial world of music file-swapping and DRM (digital rights management).

“iSync allows you to take your contacts, your addresses, and put it on your iPod. There’s nothing sharing about it,” explains Phil Schiller, senior vice president of product marketing at Apple.

Yet the line between synchronizing and sharing is becoming blurred.

“Synchronization would be the movement of information from a source to a destination where end devices are generally known. Sharing would be synchronization where the end devices are not known. In either of these cases, there is a high degree of copyright infringement possible. Unless either process has a checkout function it will probably promote illegal behavior,” said Ken Dulaney, a chief strategist at Gartner in San Jose, Calif.

Content to confine its discussion to using iSync for synchronization of calendar and contact data, Apple sees Bluetooth coming into the picture as it forges critical partnerships with carriers such as Cingular Wireless and handset manufacturers such as Sony and Ericsson.

Cingular is one of many carriers launching services targeted at the corporate market. These carriers are incorporating J2ME (Java 2 Mobile Enterprise) along with other technologies for its handset app dev work and for access to many types of corporate data.

“[Cell phones] make … really great always-on devices, really great Internet devices that can also be a modem for my Titanium PowerBook,” Schiller said.

Schiller added that carriers are going in the right direction in terms of enabling computers to seamlessly integrate third-generation data technology and protocols such as Bluetooth. “What’s needed, they’re doing,” he said.

In turn, Cingular’s CEO Stephen Carter is equally complimentary.

“The fact that a progressive company like Apple has built its wireless phone strategy around the integration of Bluetooth shows it’s both on the cutting edge of not just the personal computing industry, but wireless communications as well,” Carter said.

One longtime Apple watcher, Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies in Campbell, Calif., also thinks Apple’s got it right.

“Bluetooth is potentially the conduit for communications and data connectivity,” Bajarin said.

Not only do Apple strategists view the cell phone as the ubiquitous device to access data and sync with devices such as the iPod and notebooks, Schiller believes cell phones obviate the need for handhelds.

“What I continually hear from customers is, Well, wait a minute, my phone has my contacts on it, my calendar on it, why am I carrying this PDA?” Schiller said.

There are many indications that Apple’s vision for ubiquitous wireless access is shared by others.

Stamford, Conn., research firm GartnerG2 has issued an advisory to the auto industry, recommending that telematics companies “provide connectivity to mobile services that are not limited to the vehicle via Bluetooth or other short-range, wireless technologies.”

Support may also come from strange bedfellow Microsoft, which last week announced a Bluetooth module for notebooks and desktops, pitching it as a solution for working with a Bluetooth phone as a modem to access the corporate network.

Return to the Special report: Apple unpeeled package.

Forum: Pick a side in the debate between Test Center analysts P.J. Connolly and Tom Yager over Apple’s enterprise worthiness.