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The encyclopedia · Software & IT · Strategic decision · 1998–2001

Bluetooth won as an open spec five rivals wrote together and gave away royalty-free.

Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia and Toshiba formed a Special Interest Group that published one royalty-free radio spec, so any maker could build it.

Ericsson · Intel · IBM · Nokia · Toshiba

the move

In the late 1990s mobile phones, laptops and peripherals each came with their own cables and connectors, and travellers had to juggle a pile of proprietary leads. Ericsson had a short-range radio idea and, rather than sell it alone, decided to make it an industry standard.

In early 1998 Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia and Toshiba formed the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, contributing their different strengths - Ericsson the radio, IBM and Toshiba the device integration, Intel the chips and software, Nokia the mobile expertise. They published one open specification and invited the wider industry to adopt it royalty-free.

Version 1.0 came in 1999, and the membership grew into thousands. Because the spec was free and global (2.45GHz ISM band), Bluetooth chips and products appeared across brands, and the single port replaced a bag of cables.

why it works

  • The open, royalty-free specification removed the licence cost so every vendor could adopt it, not just the founders' allies.
  • Running on the globally available 2.45GHz ISM band meant the same device worked worldwide without re-design.
  • Pooling the founders' expertise avoided a duplicative race and produced one complete spec rather than several competing ones.
  • Once the standard was open, the market of phones, cars and audio makers supplied the ubiquity the founders could not have bought alone.
the payoffOne short-range radio spec, open and royalty-freeclever

what transfers

If the fight is for the standard, do not defend your own proprietary device - share the spec royalty-free with your biggest rivals and let the market build it for you.

what came after

Bluetooth became the default short-range wireless standard, built into phones, laptops, headphones, cars and medical devices, and it kept adding profiles and versions (through Bluetooth 5 and beyond). The open-spec SIG model it pioneered became a template for later collaborative standards.

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