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Bluetooth Marketing : Wising Up
May 01, 2007
We have long been advocates of Bluetooth and of course Bluetooth and Java. As you may be aware, those who make new standards tend to be techies, not marketing-types, which is why we end up with official names for standards like Java APIs for Bluetooth Wireless technologies (aka JABWT, which is the "official" name, believe it or not, for the only slightly-less-obtuse JSR82 (or JSR-82) standard). Have I closed all my brackets there? Good.
No one actually uses the term JABWT of course: it's always been, and will always will be, JSR82 (or JSR-82).
Anyway - this is on my mind as I was reading some coverage of the recent Bluetooth All-Hands meeting in Incisor magazine. As a fan of Streaming Stereo Bluetooth Audio, I'm convinced this year will be a Big Year for Stereo Bluetooth Headphones. As a nerd, I happen to know that, if I go looking to buy some Stereo Bluetooth Headphones, that one of the the key things I need to look for is A2DP support (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile). Of course, A2DP ranks about the same in consumer-friendliness terms as JAWBT or JSR82, i.e. not friendly at all.
Seems the Bluetooth SIG have copped on to the fact that they need to address how best to market Bluetooth Stereo:
There is this thing called A2DP. So far, marketing the Bluetooth stereo message
has been all about promoting this thing called A2DP. You need to make sure your
phone is A2DP–ready. What the heck does that mean to the average consumer? And
let’s not go into the territory of levels of interoperability between apparently A2DP-
compliant products. That just shouldn’t be an issue.
It was agreed that if Bluetooth stereo music is to gain widespread awareness, the first
thing that has to go is all references to A2DP. Consumers don’t need to know
about profiles. Full stop. The SIG’s experience icon programme is a first step,
but it was also acknowledged by the group that at this time, it is only really the SIG
that is fully behind the experience icons, with members planning to get behind it, but
not having done so yet.
So, if the first step is recognising the problem - then this is progress. I think we need a snappy name for Bluetooth Stereo to aid the marketing efforts. I offer here some initial top-of-the-head candidates. All suggestions to the Bluetooth SIG please!
- BlueTune or BlueTunes ("these headsets are BlueTune-ready!!")
- BlueMoo ("now with BlueMoo support")
- BlueStream (probably used for something else?)
- TuneTooth (eh, no thanks)
- audioBlue (no comment)
Anyone got a better idea?
Comments
HiBlue
BlueHi
WIHIFI ? Wireless HIFI? Too smart, I know, I know
Once piece of advice would be to ditch the whole bluetooth brand for this as bluetooth freaks people out (its something difficult to configure).