Signature Q4 2008

Perspectives | Illustration by Arthur Mount | Q4 ’08 The Road to Wireless Nirvana By Fred Bhesania Six months before the Bluetooth Core Speciﬁcation Version 2.1 + EDR was ﬁnalized in August 2007, Microsoft sensed a market need to simplify and enhance support for wireless technologies in the Windows Vista® operating system. In response, we developed the Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless, which includes support for new Windows® Connect Now and Bluetooth wireless technology features. The feature pack addresses the three most prominent customer pain points: ease of installation and use, feature parity with wired scenarios and addressing partner needs. Customer Ease of Use Our customers were not mainly asking for technical improvements, such as greater range or longer battery life. The No. 1 request was easier device pairing with Windows PCs. By using Secure Simple Pairing and a new user interface designed with Bluetooth wireless and future technologies in mind, we have drastically improved user experience. This is measured by fewer decisions users must make, as well as fewer steps to use (not just pair) devices. Improved Partner Experience We Do Windows A senior Microsoft executive and member of the Bluteooth SIG Board of Directors explains how the world’s leading provider of consumer computer operating systems plans to make enhanced Bluetooth technology standard on new PCs and laptops. In China, meanwhile, Accel Semiconductor is opening windows to a wireless future beyond the PC. Our partners have been asking for innovation to enable differentiation. This often involves refreshing products in the market-base between major OS releases. In addition, our Bluetooth technology partners faced a huge problem with multiple software stacks with different APIs. Microsoft worked with large industry players like Broadcom and CSR to drive adoption of a consolidated software stack. We even identiﬁed the top crashes in Vista and addressed key issues in our software, to improve customer and partner experience. We did this before the release of the service pack to improve partner experience. Future Preparations As we approach 1 billion Bluetooth radios sold every year, our customers are asking our industry to make wireless technologies as basic and simple as wired technologies. The top issue areas identiﬁed are simpliﬁed pairing, better stability and, in one case, feature parity (remote wakeup for keyboards and mice). Microsoft has and will continue to make great strides in these areas based on customer and market demand. We will also ensure that key customer issues (reported whenever a Windows Vista PC crashes) are addressed, as we have already done in this feature pack with several such issues. We expect mass adoption of Windows Vista Feature Pack to take place as the year continues, and by the 2008 holiday season, any new PC or laptop running on Windows Vista will have enhanced Bluetooth wireless compatibility in all languages. Over the next six months, we will closely monitor the rollout of this feature pack and encourage our partners to share their feedback with Microsoft. The data gathered will be used to make appropriate decisions for future updates, both to Bluetooth technology in Windows Vista and to future operating systems. For details on Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless, please visit microsoft.com/whdc. Fred Bhesania is senior program manager at Microsoft and serves on the Bluetooth SIG Board of Directors. 10 | SIGnature | Bluetooth.org http://www.microsoft.com/whdc http://www.Bluetooth.org

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