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Ozmo, a wireless start-up headquartered in Palo Alto, Ozmo is taking on Bluetooth in the PC peripherals market with an interesting technology that includes an "extension to the Wi-Fi protocol," a 9 Mbits/s data rate, and dual radios (2.4 and 5 GHz).
Perhaps the biggest advantage Ozmo has, however, is that its technology has already been adopted by Intel. (See the news article Wi-Fi jumps into the PAN.)
In electronics—particularly wireless—competition is always a moving target.
And for the applications Ozmo is targeting (mice, keyboards, headsets etc.) Bluetooth is something of a paper tiger.
It has never succeeded in the PC peripheral market because proprietary technologies, notably those from Nordic Semiconductor and Cypress Semiconductor, have all the power- and cost-saving features Ozmo is touting for its technology.
(See Avoiding Interference in the 2.4-GHz ISM band and When DSSS and FHSS fail: Avoiding interference on the 2.4GHz wireless desktop.)
Bluetooth is evolving as well with ultra-low-power Bluetooth about a year away and high-speed Bluetooth (based on sharing a Wi-Fi radio) coming a year after that. There are challenges to ULP Bluetooth when one tries to apply it to PC peripheral scenarios—but finding solutions to challenges and constantly innovating is what engineering is all about.
We'll find out more about these comparisons as we move into the future. Ozmo, for example, will probably detail its technology in WirelessNetDesignline over the next few months.
Ozmo's ace in the hole may be its dual-radio specification, which suggests a bit more than just PC peripheral attachments. But don't forget that the PC business isn't the sequestered market of a decade ago. Nokia, Apple and other "consumer" companies will be chiming in on Ozmo too.
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