Despite the aura of gloom pervading the computer market in 2002, one technology looks like it had a good year.

A report out this week shows that Bluetooth, the short-range radio system, experienced dramatic growth over the last 12 months.

Once the final figures are collected, market research firm In-Stat/MDR expects Bluetooth chip shipments to be up 250% on 2001.

But the firm warns that hurdles still remain to make Bluetooth fulfil its early promise and become the standard way of getting gadgets to swap data with each other.

Chip ship

The report from In-Stat expects final shipments of Bluetooth chips to have surpassed 35 million in 2002.

By 2006 In-Stat expects more than 510 million Bluetooth chipsets to be shipped.

Much of this growth is due to the fact that the short-range radio system is becoming a standard addition to many mobile phones, laptops and other gadgets.

This year Bluetooth will start to make an appearance in expensive cars to enable people to make phone calls while on the move, a shift that In-Stat expects to significantly drive take-up of the technology.

Bluetooth, named after a 10th century Danish king, removes the need for wires to link up devices, instead the wireless system lets gadgets find each other automatically.

But In-Stat warned that work needed to be done to educate potential users about the benefits of Bluetooth. Too often, said the firm, vendors emphasise the technology rather than what it can do for people.

Without this work to educate consumers the take-up of the technology could stutter, warned the firm.