 |  |  |  |  |
Bluetooth Experience Icons were introduced by the Bluetooth SIG to make it easy for anyone shopping for Bluetooth devices to find interoperable products. For example, if he wants a Bluetooth printer that can print photos captured by his digital camera, then he should look around for printer and camera bearing the Headset Icon on their packaging.
The presence of the relevant icons on all Bluetooth products will shorten the process of matching supported Bluetooth profiles between two or more Bluetooth devices. For average users, this is very useful for saving time and money when buying a Bluetooth product. A lot of users express discontent over buying incompatible devices.
On top of that, these icons will educate and thereby encourage users to utilize their Bluetooth devices beyond popular usage scenario. For example, many Bluetooth smart phones support other profiles besides headset profile. But being unaware of other supported profiles' capability, most consumers only pair it with a Bluetooth headset.
However, the effectiveness of Bluetooth Experience Icons in boosting global Bluetooth usage for its varied applications remains to be seen. It depends on the awareness of major hardware manufactures and software developers to follow the Bluetooth SIG recommendation to put relevant Bluetooth Experience Icons in their product packages. And the Experience Icons introduction is only one factor, other issues still have to be addressed by the Bluetooth SIG, the to-do-list must contain how to simplify the pairing process and develop non-techy user friendly Bluetooth software. Anyway, have you noticed any of the said icons on a Bluetooth product that you bought recently?
