Prices for Bluetooth chips have dropped to below US$1, resulting in fast growing adoption such that Bluetooth-enabled models will account for 65% of all handsets sold this year. In addition, more than 1.0 billion devices equipped with Bluetooth solutions will be sold in 2010, according to Taiwan-based developers/makers of Bluetooth chips.

A Bluetooth chip cost as much as US$20 when it was initially launched in 2000, the sources pointed out. In addition to handsets, Bluetooth has been widely adopted for headphones and mobile PCs, with global shipments projected to increase from 1.0 billion chips in 2010 to 2.0 billion in 2013, the sources indicated.

While Bluetooth 2.x is the mainstream version currently, Bluetooth 3.0 + High Speed has been applied to netbook PCs, high-end smartphones and wireless routers to offer WLAN download speeds of up to 24Mbps, the sources noted.

Bluetooth 4.0 + Low Energy is in development, with applications mainly targeting medical care, sports, home entertainment and toys, the sources indicated.