of course, a bluetooth adapter that works through usb and is manufactured by the cheapest Chinese factory available might not be the ideal. But the price level suggests that if a major laptop manufacturer were to buy a whole lot of similar chips and integrate them directly into the motherboard (without usb, sufficient hardiness to withstand human handling etc), it would not have been particularly expensive.
So is there a reason why some laptops don’t have it? Or are those “some laptops” several years old, back when bluetooth device cost a lot more for some reason, whereas right now all laptops have it?
The answer I was given when I asked a Dell manager about a similar thing many, many years ago, but it probably applies here, too, was something along the lines of: Even at $2 each, we are going to sell 100,000 of these, so leaving them out adds up to serious money.
The obvious question then, and at the time I asked the guy had no response was: I’d happily pay $5 if you included this $2 feature, why don’t you?
I think the answer for many preconfigured laptops is that they’re being built to a price point, such as $499, $899, etc. and the company is going to skimp on everything that isn’t a necessary feature to make the most profit at that price point. Most build to order laptops from websites can add a bluetooth module for $20 or so, which is probably a nice bit of profit for the seller. The manufacturers and stores clearly believe it is better to have a $499 laptop, competing with other $499 laptops, than a $519 one with an extra feature, competing with $499 laptops.
BTW, every internal bluetooth module I’ve seen is connected over USB. It isn’t literally an internal USB port which looks the same as an external one with a bluetooth module in it, but electronically, and as far as the operating system is concerned, it is bluetooth over USB.
There’s lots of things a manuf could add to a base notebook for few bucks each, but after you’re done they then have a budget priced notebook that out competes (or makes relatively less attractive) the mid level and premium lines. For better or worse BT is feature that most manuf reserve for the mid level and premium lines to differentiate those lines.
As a side note I’ve never found BT to be that great a communication scheme. The install procedure for everything before Win 7 were absurdly complex. It works well with wireless headsets and a few other things, but there are still may things that it’s way too flaky for. A technology as old As BT is at this point should be as transparent and bulletproof as USB and it’s not.
I also don’t think a lot of people would notice on budget PC’s, because they wouldn’t use it. Aside from the novelty factor, I’ve only begun using mine in the last few months with any seriousness, and that’s only for my headphones, and this has been having computers with BT capability since… 2004? I suppose I have used it very rarely for transferring data from my phone to computer and vice-versa, but in the era of the ubiquitous iPhone and Android devices that plug into one’s computer without expensive data cables, I’m not sure anyone would even care for that functionality.
Having different products with different features is standard price discrimination. People who don’t care about bluetooth are going to buy the cheaper one. People who do care are likely willing to pay more than an extra $2-5 to get it.
look out, the zombie is gonna bite with sharp blue tooth
So if word on the street is that the big corps do [del]gouging[/del] price-differentiation on higher end models (e.g. “we promise you extra $2 worth of bluetooth, you pay us extra $100 for the laptop”) why isn’t there a thriving cottage industry doing after-market modification of low cost laptops with all those extra gadgets for the budget-conscious, loves-the-gadgets consumer?
I imagine the labor to put it in and ship it would be so expensive so as to make it not worth it. USB dongles are fairly cheap, and no-name ones from China on eBay doubly so.
The point about a low cost laptop is that the motherboard does not have the functionality included, nor does it have the extension capability to have these things added. If you want bluetooth, get a USB adapter. If you want Firewire, get a PCMCIA/Cardbus adapter. Also, there is no space inside the case to fit them, so they have to dangle. If you pay for a cheap laptop, that is one of the prices you pay.
For a manufacturer the issue is not the $2 for a cheap USB Bluetooth adapter. It is the complete design of the motherboard and case to integrate a bluetooth adapter. It is finding a Bluetooth adapter chip that has a MTBF comparable to (or better than) all the other components in the laptop. It is adding an aerial to a crammed shell that provides suitable functionality in a RF noisy environment. It is providing development, testing, drivers and customer support for an additional element on the system. All this adds up to considerably more per unit shipped than the original. Also, the more you add, the more elements that can fail, and the higher the warranty costs.
