Service providers stay hands-off on hands-free

Brian O’Rourke, principal analyst with In-Stat Research, said a big growth area for Bluetooth has been in the automotive market, but he’s not convinced the new laws will have a noticeable effect on the carriers or consumers driving in California.

“I don’t think these laws will have much of an effect – the reason being that Bluetooth is already doing very well,” O’Rourke said. “It’s huge. It is very established. A majority of handsets shipped in 2007 had Bluetooth. It’s going to be over 60% in 2008. That trend was in place really before hands-free driving became much of an issue.”

While the laws might not have a direct effect, several factors coming together could ultimately lead to more Bluetooth adoption. For one, more automobiles are coming equipped with Bluetooth capability. What was once a feature of only high-end vehicles is now getting into the Toyota Camry range of cars, O’Rourke said. Furthermore, many people have Bluetooth capability in their handsets but have yet to realize it. If more statewide hands-free laws are passed, the hope is that more customers will seek out the capability in both their phones and cars.

“There is a big market for after-market Bluetooth car kits, stuff that is not factory installed in the car, but something you might plug into your cigarette lighter or might be battery operated,” O’Rourke said. “Hands-free laws should certainly affect that after-market Bluetooth car kit market and the viability of that and people’s interest in it. If you have a better solution in an aftermarket Bluetooth car kit, these hands-free laws are certainly an opportunity for those companies.”

SMS text messaging, an increasingly popular way to communicate, is another threatening distraction that Bluetooth can’t accommodate. According to Gartner estimates, more than 1 trillion text messages were send worldwide last year, a number that is expected to double this year. Today’s law does not prohibit sending text messages; however, any law enforcement officer may cite a driver for not operating a vehicle safely.

Technology from software company Nuance Communications serves as another alternative option for hands-free calling and text messaging. It lets consumers dictate to their wireless handset to make voice calls, send SMS text messages or even emails. Voice commands also let the driver listen to text messages or e-mails or speak a contact's name to call. Nuance’s technology is in use by Sprint and Canada’s Rogers Communications in Blackberrys and Palm handsets. The company has plans to introduce the technology in several more handsets as well, driving it out of just the smartphone category and into the feature phone category.

Michael Wehrs, vice president of evangelism at Nuance, said that 20% of handsets today have the ability to make or end a call through pushing one button without looking at the phone. Nuance has conducted studies that conclude that any time a driver takes his or her hands off the wheel, it has an enormous impact. With Nuance’s technology, the company has found that the average number of times per month a subscriber pushes the button and gives a command for something by voice is 63 times per month – what Wehrs calls staggeringly high usage.

“If the carrier lost the ability to have phone calls or any other services on the phone during commute hours, think about the revenue impact of that,” Wehrs said. “There is pressure on carriers to come up with solutions that still meet the regulatory guidelines. Really the only things left that lets you interact without touching is speech. So, there is an enormous opportunity to get this solved.”