At one of the Bluetooth Developer’s conferences that took place in Monte Carlo, I in the bar of the Hotel de Paris telling this story of how Bluetooth became the name of the SIG and technology as folks bought me beers.  One of the active listeners was Vince Holton of the Incisor (he was always hanging about looking for a story).  Vince was intrigued by the story and thought it would make a great article for his magazine and asked me to write the story down.  I of course said no, I didn’t want to write a long story.  My buddy Simon Ellis was also present and reminded me that not only were we in Monte Carlo 1 week after the Grande Prix (most of the track was still setup in the streets) but that Vince had a Ferrari he was driving around as part of one of his marketing programs.  After another beer it was agreed that Vince would take us (Simon and I) on a lap around the Monte Carlo Grand Prix track in his Ferrari, and I would write the story down (as told in the bar).  While I could use some negotiation lessons from Simon, Vince gave us a heck of a ride (see the video of the Ferrari ride below), and I wrote a popular three part article for the Incisor (picture of the article links to the PDF file, right click and save).  Vince published the article in 2000 and again in 2005 and I’ve been told it was very popular.  Here is the story in all its glory, edited to a single file, and updated a bit.

This article is pretty is pretty funny (even if I say so myself) and has been referenced many times.  The article and story are referenced by Cindy Rabe in her book “The Innovation Killer” as a good example, and referenced by Mike Foley (CEO of the Bluetooth SIG Inc.) when I was inducted into the Bluetooth Hall of Fame in 2006.

Also be sure to check-out the usage videos and launch videos discussed in this article (they have separate blog entries).

Enjoy!  Jim Kardach