Bluetoooth still sucks

Cory Doctorow 6:40 am Wed Nov 13, 2002

Bob Frankston explains why Bluetooth still sucks: it's all about the connectivity.

We should learn from the example of X.400. X.400 was (is?) a mail protocol approved and required by essentially all the telecommunication agencies throughout the world. It was designed over a period of ten years yet failed against SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) which could be implemented in an afternoon. Like x.400, the Bluetooth was designed and promulgated before anyone could learn from the first generation. Bluetooth is designed to work in the specific cases imagined by its designers and thus will perform very well in precisely those scenarios and these are the scenarios touted in press releases. It's not surprising that if you don't use Bluetooth precisely as envisioned it will not work very well. There is a tendency to view these problems as anomalies and those of us who point them out are considered spoilers and are thus discounted.

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