1994: Bluetooth Technology is Imagined by Jaap Haartsen - Pivotal Moments

Jaap Haartsen pictured in his laboratory with bluetooth devices

Welcome to our sixth Pivotal Moments blog. If you follow us on social media, you'll know what this is all about. To paraphrase Confucius, it's only by knowing where we've been that we can understand where we're going.

“Study the past if you would divine the future.”

—Confucius

Technology advancements have changed how we live, and there’s no doubt about it. But the best kind of technology is often the sort that runs in the background with no fuss. Most of the time, we don’t quite understand how it works, only that it’s crucial to the ease and simplicity of our world.

Wireless Bluetooth technology is similar. I’m writing this on a Bluetooth keyboard using a Bluetooth mouse, and my headphones and smartphone also use Bluetooth. Without this crucial technology, my daily life would be far fiddlier.

When Bluetooth was thought up, perhaps its creator didn’t understand how reliant the world would become on his technology. But we are, which makes its creation such a fascinating story.

Early Years

Jacobus Cornelius Haartsen, known as Jaap to his friends and colleagues, was born in Hague in the Netherlands in 1963. He studied Engineering at Delft University in 1986, where the Dutchman received his degree with honours.

Briefly working for Siemens and Phillips in his early years, he returned to his studies in 1990 and gained a PhD with honours, again from Delft. His thesis was titled “Programmable Surface Acoustic Wave Detection in Silicon: Design of Programmable Filters”. Though quite a mouthful, it’s clear to see that at 27, Haartsen was already on track.

In 1989, Haartsen was working for the Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson when their CTO, Nils Rydbeck, made a suggestion.

The CTO wanted to develop short-range radio technology, which soon became Haartsen’s goal. He wanted to create a wireless digital device to support digital and visual data.

When Ericsson shifted from the US to Sweden in 1993, Haartsen followed. It was there he first developed the idea for Bluetooth.

The Pivotal Moment

In 1994, Haartsen took on a project related to indoor wireless systems and attempted to find a way to enable short-range radio connections. He eventually developed this system, which became the daily Bluetooth technology.

Named for the Viking king, who united Norway and Denmark in the 10th century, Bluetooth was designed to replace RS-232 telecommunication cables. Though this is similar to modern Wi-Fi frequency, Haartsen designed Bluetooth to be shorter in range and use less power.

Haartsen and his team developed a chip that took up little space and battery power but had various uses. However, the first version of Bluetooth had issues. Address broadcasting was compulsory, which caused anonymity issues.

There were connection problems and problems with data speeds. The original version couldn’t reach more than 10 metres in distance, but its capabilities gradually increased.

Nowadays, one of the most common uses of Bluetooth is for audio products. But initially, it wasn’t designed for music due to its 721Kbps speed—it wouldn’t have been able to produce CD-quality audio.

In 1997, IBM approached Ericsson to discuss integrating new technology into their own. The result was that their ThinkPad A30 notebook computer and the next Ericsson phone release (the T36) included Bluetooth. However, since neither company was a big player in their respective markets, it was decided to open-source the technology.

Founder and CEO of Pivotal, Tait Pollack, discusses the genesis of Bluetooth and the fascinating events leading up to it.

How Bluetooth Technology Grew

In 1998, Haartsen was instrumental in creating the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (BSIG) and served as its Chairman until 2000.

BSIG worked to standardise Bluetooth interfaces and to obtain the much-needed approvals for the worldwide use of Bluetooth technology. BSIG soon had IBM, Ericsson, Nokia, Toshiba and Intel onboard.

Since its creation, Bluetooth has continued to grow and evolve, retaining almost complete backwards compatibility.

These days, it is the gold standard in wireless data transfer and is standard on most smartphones manufactured. It is capable of file sharing, device pairing, and tethering internet connections, all while using very little power.

How is Bluetooth Technology Still Relevant?

Apple Airpods headphones with case, iPhone, iPad, Apple Pen and Apple Keyboard neatly arranged

Most of us have used Bluetooth technology at some point. You’re probably using it right now. Its impact on communication and data transfer has been monumental, making everyday tasks easier simply because it uses no mobile data to transfer files.

Wireless Bluetooth capabilities have expanded the technology industry, producing previously impossible devices. Wireless headphones, speakers, game controllers, keyboards, mice, and more are testaments to Haartsen’s creation's usefulness.

Though even modern Bluetooth technology has limitations, its flexible use has been its greatest asset. By the end of 2018, as many as 10 billion Bluetooth devices had been shipped worldwide.

Since it's such a low-energy product, it has the potential to continue growing as a technology and functions as a driving factor for the furthering of technology in not only smartphones but many other areas.

Overall, Bluetooth has done pretty well for a technology that’s only been commercially available since 1998. Whether you run an eCommerce store or rush to college, Bluetooth is likely an integral (if not subtle) part of your life.