What can enterprises and consumers expect from the cooperation between wireless standards groups? Backward compatibility, for one, according to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG).

The organization's announcement that it will work with the developers of next-generation and competing standard ultra-wideband (UWB) means that devices that use one might be able to talk to equipment that uses the other.

UWB's major benefit is that it transmits data at very fast rates -- making it more suitable for media such as video. Bluetooth, on the other hand, already has an established presence in the electronics market. It currently has strong footholds in the mobile handset and personal computer arenas.

Cut the Cord

But perhaps the most immediate benefit of a standard that incorporates the strengths of both short-range wireless communication specifications will be in reducing the mess of cords that most people have behind their home-entertainment centers, Yankee Group's Nitin Gupta said.

"You could bring home your high-definition DVD player, plug it in, and immediately have it streaming video to your TV or other devices," he explained.

That is a big benefit indeed for the many electronics equipment buyers who have spent whole afternoons trying to figure out which cable goes where.

Synch Speed

Another benefit to marrying Bluetooth with UWB is the speed at which users could synchronize devices.

For example, said Gupta, transferring Microsoft Word or Excel files from a PDA to a laptop currently can take several minutes, depending on the size of the files. For enterprise employees rushing off to meetings, that can be too long.

Likewise, users of very popular music player devices such as the iPod often wish for faster synch times -- even better, synchronization without a cable. A joint Bluetooth/UWB standard could prompt those developments, Gupta said.

However, such a joint standard would not be intended as a full networking solution, Gupta stressed. "This would not compete with 802.11x networks."