In a speech delivered at this week's WiCon World event, Philips Semiconductor's Paul Marino, vice president and general manager of business line connectivity, complained that the wireless industry is adding too many standards to existing technologies instead of fixing their inherent problems. He cited the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is a prime example by of this by their defining new modes and profiles that may and may not have been needed. He added that there are complaints that this has made it much harder for the Bluetooth community to maintain interoperability.

Marino certainly has a point, but his company is heavily behind the ultra-wideband (UWB) movement, so you may have to take some of what he said with a grain of salt.

Citing the example of Bluetooth auto applications, Marino said. "It's ridiculous that we haven't even fixed the phone book access problem in a car."

A deadlock within the Bluetooth SIG on a standardized phone book synchronization method between a car kit and a mobile handset has made it difficult for car makers to ensure that mobile handset users can access phone books or SIM cards inside a handset using Bluetooth for hands-free calls.

Instead of solving real problems, some in the SIG are talking about "high data rate" Bluetooth, Marino charged. "Who cares about that?" What customers need is a much more cost-effective device that works and interoperates, he added.

Consumer experience with Wi-Fi is another example the industry should learn from. Although it took the wireless industry more than ten years to get to this point, Marino said that IEEE 802.11 "is really easy to use." The standard was born out of a solid standard's body, backed by a strong Wi-Fi alliance.

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Philips Semiconductors is also targeting the emerging ultrawideband (UWB) technology market. Philips is a member of the Multiband OFDM Alliance (MBOA) and has co-authored the MBOA MAC proposal together with Sony and Alereon.

Marino said he is hopeful that a variety of network technologies, including USB, Bluetooth and 1394 can use UWB radio by adding an adaptation layer on top of UWB's transport layer. This allows companies with a large installed base of software for Bluetooth or USB to salvage that technology. "Re-doing the whole thing would be unacceptable," said Marino.

The deep division currently created between MBOA and DS [direct-sequence] UWB groups, however, could damage UWB's future, he said. "I am extremely concerned."