Wi-Fi Will Kill Bluetooth By Next Year

Wi-Fi could be kicking Bluetooth in to touch within the next year or so.

So says this slide swiped by IntoMobile that was produced by Wi-Fi Alliance.

Wi-Fi Alliance, the trade association that promotes wireless networking, is working on device-to-device connectivity over Wi-Fi which will obviously work at higher speeds than Bluetooth can offer and it should be ready by 2010!

But surly, Wi-Fi requires an active network in the area to work?

Ah, you see: With device-to-device Wi-Fi devices would be able to transfer data at Wi-Fi speeds without having to be in range of a Wi-Fi router.  Clever, huh?

There’s no real surprise to the fact that Wi-Fi Alliance is forcasting that mobile phones will be responsible for a large chunk of the Wi-Fi device-to-device market.  The Alliance estimates that shipments of Wi-Fi enabled mobiles will hit 300 million by 2011.

So, not a slow start if their predictions are accurate.

Is this bye-bye Bluetooth?

What do you think?