2018年可锐考研英语阅读真题文章
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2018
年可锐考研英语阅读真题文章（四）
Bluetooth
’
s
quiet success
It was born
amid a blaze of hype at the height of the dotcom
boom, but initially failed to thrive.
Indeed, Bluetooth, a shortrange
wireless technology used to interconnect portable
devices, has
been
declared
dead
on
many
occasions.
Early
versions
of
the
technology
suffered
from
compatibility problems;
an ambitious demonstration of the technology at a
trade show in 2001
failed
to
work.
And
while
Bluetooth
struggled
despite
all
the
hype
from
its
backers,
another
wireless technology, WiFi, took off on
its own. Obituaries of Bluetooth have appeared
many times
in the technology press,
usually attributing its demise to the success of
WiFi. Bluetooth is in full
retreat,
declared Sean Maloney, an Intel executive, in
2001. Other analysts issued similar verdicts.
But reports of the death of Bluetooth
proved to be premature: today it is in rude
health. Sales of
Bluetooth devices more
than doubled in 2005 to reach 320m units, and the
figure is expected to
exceed 520m this
year-equivalent to more than 10m units a week and
far outstripping sales of
WiFi
chips.
Around
one
in
four
mobile
phones
sold
now
support
Bluetooth.
And
after
years
of insisting that Bluetooth was more than just a
way to link a wireless headset to a mobile
phone, its backers seem to have been
vindicated, as other uses for Bluetooth have at
last begun
to emerge. Last year 60% of
Bluetooth chips went into mobile handsets and 15%
into wireless
headsets, says Scott
Smyser of iSuppli, a marketresearch firm, but the
other 25% went into other
devices, from
laptop computers, keyboards and mice to
Bluetoothenabled clothing.
This
success, after its rocky start, is due
to a combination of factors, says Stuart Carlaw,
an analyst at
ABI Research. In many
countries Bluetooth
’
s
fortunes were boosted by new legislation banning
the use of mobile phones without a
handsfree kit while driving. This prompted many
people to
buy Bluetooth headsets.
Several carmakers, led by Audi, also began to
incorporate microphones
and
speakers,
capable
of
connecting
to
a
handset
via
Bluetooth,
into
their
vehicles.
As
consumers became more aware of
Bluetooth and began to ask for it, handsetmakers
started to
include
it
as
a
means
of
differentiating
their
products
and
increasing
their
margins.
Adding
a
Bluetooth
chip
to
a
phone
now
costs
very
littlearound
$$2,
says
Mr
Carlaw,
down
from
$$20
in
2001-but allows the
manufacturer to increase the price of the handset
by far more, and opens up
a new market
for highmargin accessories. Finally, operators
began offering Bluetooth headsets as
incentives to new customers. Again, the
perceived value of the headset is far higher than
its cost
to the operator, so this
increases margins.
Greater
adoption has, in turn, cleared the way
for
the
inclusion
of
Bluetooth
in
all
kinds
of
new
products.
In
addition
to
Bluetoothenabled
jackets,
motorcycle helmets and sunglasses with builtin
wireless headsets, the controllers for two
nextgeneration videogames consoles due
to be launched later this year,
Sony
’
s PlayStation 3 and
Nintendo
’
s
Wii,
will
use
Bluetooth.
Because
Bluetooth
is
an
industry
standard,
both
consolemakers
can
buy
chips
and
software
off
the
shelf,
which
is
quicker
and
cheaper
than
developing their own proprietary
technologies, says Mr Carlaw.
Aircraft emissions: The
dirty sky
All big ideas start life on the fringes
of debate. Very often it takes a shocking event to
move
them
into
the
mainstream.
Until
last
year
interest
in
climate
change
was
espoused
mainly
by