Bluetooth: SIG announces Specification - finally

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has announced it will finally ship version 0.9 of the Bluetooth Specification on April 29. The much-anticipated release is expected to fill in some of the gaps from 0.8 and bring the standard nearer to a viable product development platform.

The specification is behind schedule as version 1.0 was initially earmarked for an April release. Specification 1.0 will now be delayed until June 9 with commercial product announcements expected in October. Ericsson has already revealed it is still on course to release its first Bluetooth products at Telecoms 99 in Geneva in October, despite delays to the current Specification release.

"This is causing some SIG members to wonder whether we'll actually get full test routines to go with version 1.0 or whether they will follow later in the year, therefore pushing back final launch dates," said Nick Hunn, TDK Systems Bluetooth development manager.

Hunn added that 3Com is being co-opted onto the SIG specification committee to "speed up the definition of Version 2.0, which will provide support for Scatternets. The best estimate for this release is March 2000."

Take me to the Bluetooth special.