Signature - Q4, 2007 - (Page 30)

Bluetooth Technology 501 | By David English | Illustration by John Hersey | Q4 ’07 The Bluetooth SIG has studied the primary issues consumers experience with Bluetooth enabled products, and the results may surprise you. In most cases, the issues aren’t with the technology itself. They usually stem from how the technology requirements are interpreted and which of the features are actually implemented by manufacturers. “Our testing showed that most of the perceived interoperability issues have nothing to do with interoperability, but with usability,” explains Peter Hauser, product unit manager for the Bluetooth SIG. That’s why the Bluetooth SIG created a testing program to go with the Experience Icons. The Icons serve two main goals. For members, the Icon program tells them what use cases they must implement to ensure their products are interoperable and deliver a great user experience. For consumers of Bluetooth technology, Hauser says, “they will be able to look and see that, ‘OK, I’ve got a headset with a music Icon, and I’ve got a phone with a music Icon. These products will be able to stream music, and I’ll be able to listen to stereo audio on my headset.’” Minimal Cost, Maximum Beneﬁt User-Friendly The few minutes needed to complete testing requirements for the Experience Icon program are well worth avoiding costly interoperability issues down the road. These automated tests are helping members of the Bluetooth SIG, Inc. better define and communicate product capabilities. That can mean a better product experience for your customers. The new tests aren’t costly or time-consuming. They’re performed automatically by the latest version of the Proﬁle Tuning Suite (PTS), and they won’t signiﬁcantly add to the time it takes to qualify a product. Yet the impact can be huge: By using the new tests, manufacturers can capture errors or interoperability issues in a product long before it reaches the marketplace. “For many of these test cases, it takes just minutes,” says Hauser. “Literally, this is a non-issue given what you get from it.” Why is it important to solve interoperability issues early? “A customer-service call that results from an issue encountered by an end user costs the company some dollar amount – let’s say $50,” Hauser explains. “That $50 easily wipes out the proﬁt from a single product sale.” Every customer-service call related to a perceived interoperability issue or a feature that’s not implemented correctly costs a company money. The Bluetooth SIG wants to help its members avoid those calls by providing a more complete test package with minimal impact on member resources. By spending a few minutes running Experience Icon tests, members can save thousands of hours down the road dealing with an end-user product issue, Hauser notes. “When members test their products using the Icon test cases, they can be reasonably certain that their products will work together,” says Hauser. “We’ve created test cases that look more deeply into the speciﬁcation. The goal is to constantly raise the bar for the quality of the end product.” The testing is available to all Bluetooth SIG members, whether or not they plan to use the Icons. “It’s just that if you’re going to use the Experience Icons, you have to use these Icon test cases,” Hauser says. Deﬁne and Communicate If you visit the Bluetooth SIG’s Experience Icon testing-information Web page (programs.bluetooth.org/marketing/Icon/enhanced.htm), you’ll see a table 30 | SIGnature | Bluetooth.org http://programs.bluetooth.org/marketing/Icon/enhanced.htm http://Bluetooth.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Signature - Q4, 2007

Signature - Q4, 2007 Contents The Road Ahead Getting Noticed In the News Keeping the Edge Why Wibree? The Message Zone Do You Compute? Command Center Mountain Magic On the Fast Track Give or Get? Groundsurf’s Up! Get in the Game Get on the List Number, Please! User-Friendly The Tell-Tale Car

Signature - Q4, 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.