“Wait, are you talking to me or your Bluetooth?” was a common question in the late 1990s, especially in the business world. Bluetooth headsets, the tiny earpieces that connect calls from a phone in your pocket to a radio in your ear, were all the rage, until people realized they make you look a little crazy.
Bluetooth first came about in the early 1990s through a partnership between several major tech companies, such as Nokia and Ericsson, looking for a way to safely share files between devices. They came up with Bluetooth, a chip that connects devices through WPAN (wireless personal area network) and allows the transfer of files, such as documents or ringtones. Soon they realized it could also connect phone calls to wireless headsets the size of a thumb – hence the businesspeople chatting into seemingly thin air.
Though the headsets trended for a few years, they have been declining in popularity since 2009 according to Strategy Analytics, a technology market research group. Why? Fashion. Though some thought headsets would just keep getting smaller, and more inconspicuous, turns out that speaker phone and iPhone headphones worked just as well, and didn’t require a torpedo-shaped earpiece that could only be seen from one side of your head.
Despite the plateauing popularity of headsets, Bluetooth technology is still in most mobile devices today, and does score points for its cool name. Harald Bluetooth was a 10th century Danish king who was famous for uniting several Scandinavian countries for strategic purposes (and snacking on blueberries). Bluetooth engineers likened their mission (bringing together competing tech companies for the greater good of innovation) to this Danish king, and even created their logo after his initials in rune letters “H” and “B."
