Nearly 20 percent of all vehicles worldwide will contain embedded Bluetooth hardware by 2007, according to the findings of a new ABI study.
Future Bluetooth-based automotive applications are poised to deliver new opportunities to all facets of the industry. Bluetooth silicon costs run approximately $6, making the technology extremely attractive to automakers and ABI predicts costs will continue to fall.
Beside costs, the key automotive driver is Bluetooth proliferation into an increasing number of mobile handsets. Just recently, Sprint announced the first CDMA phone to feature Bluetooth connectivity.
While the first wave of Bluetooth devices in the vehicle will center around telephony, newer applications will soon follow. These include remote vehicle diagnostics, lower cost telematicsservices, advanced automobile safety systems, vehicle-to-vehicle communications, and remote audio and video downloads into the vehicle among others.