Ericsson's move to drop Bluetooth is misunderstood says analyst

Ericsson's decision to drop its Bluetooth division hinted to many that the once promising technology is truly a dud. But rumors of the death of Bluetooth have been greatly exaggerated according to Ovum's Jeremy Green. He thinks that Ericsson's decision actually reflects its success:

Bluetooth's critics have been quick to suggest that Ericsson is abandoning Bluetooth because it recognizes that other radio technologies, such as WiFi, Zigbee or UWB, are better. Perhaps they are, though the latter two are nowhere near Bluetooth's place on the maturity curve, and the former is not so kind to batteries and does not share spectrum so well. Most of the misery inflicted by Bluetooth on developers and users is to do with 'special' implementations of the specification in areas where the Bluetooth spec is silent. There is nothing to suggest that other radio access technologies will be better in this respect.

Green may have a point, but emerging wireless technologies like ultrawideband and ZigBee look well-poised to deliver Bluetooth's death knell by 2008.