Bluetooth — the technology that allows devices such as cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and printers to talk to each other and desktop PCs without wires — is finally getting some bite.

Though it will be a few years before Bluetooth will allow a communications module in your car to dial roadside assistance on your mobile phone and upload diagnostic information about a breakdown, the short-range wireless communications system is becoming popular for simpler applications.

According to Mike McCamon, executive director of the Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group), which manages development and licensing, more than 650 Bluetooth products are available, and more than 13 million Bluetooth "radios" — the transmission and receiving modules — were sold in 2001. However, only a handful of consumer devices include Bluetooth. Most require a sometimes-pricey adapter to make the connection, and not all computers — including Windows PCs — are compatible with Bluetooth yet.

Handheld computers and mobile phones are some of the first devices to include built-in Bluetooth.

Sony Ericsson (www.sonyericsson.com/ us), the company that created the original Bluetooth specification, exploits the technology in its T68 mobile phone to exchange information in its calendar and contact manager with desktop PCs. And Hewlett-Packard has built Bluetooth into its $749 iPAQ Pocket PC 3970.

PDA owners can add Bluetooth to their devices with some expensive adapters. Palm's costs $129, while Handspring's leaps the scales at $179.

Bluetooth is also well suited for personal printers, but some makers are proceeding with caution. Mitch Kadish, senior product manager for connectivity at Epson (www.epson.com) said, "I think eventually Bluetooth is going to be built into most any electronic device, including a digital camera, and I think that it will be very inexpensive to build it in. It will become the universal ‘cable' that will allow you to connect from one device to another."

Right now, however, Epson requires a $129 adapter to add Bluetooth to one of its printers.

HP is taking a more aggressive approach. In addition to selling Bluetooth adapters for its printers and PCs, it has added built-in Bluetooth support for its $400 Deskjet 995c inkjet printer.

The personal computer is another medium that has applications for Bluetooth. But, depending on your operating system platform, you may have to wait a while for it to show up. Microsoft's Charmaine Gravning, product manager for Windows, said the world's largest software company plans to add Bluetooth support for its Windows XP operating system by the end of the year.

However, Apple Computer is taking a more aggressive approach, according to Dave Russell, who directs the company's wireless product marketing. The Cupertino, Calif., computer maker already supports Bluetooth in its Mac OS X operating system and sells D-Link Bluetooth for $50.

Whether sooner or later, Bluetooth appears poised to take a big chunk of the wireless networking market. Joyce Pitscher, who tracks Bluetooth's growth potential for InStat/MDR, predicts that "by the start of 2004, the rate of products shipping that are Bluetooth-enabled will exceed worldwide shipments of PCs. There are going to be many more Bluetooth devices coming to market between now and the Christmas season."