by Peter I. Galace

Now, is HDTV “the next best thing to being there,” or does it really stand for “Hyped-Up Digital Television”?

Satellite service providers in Asia and around the world are turning to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing in August for the answer to this $1080 question. The betting is that the Beijing Olympics, which China is marketing as the “HDTV Olympics,” will indeed accelerate the adoption of HDTV worldwide and will more than make up for HDTV’s underwhelming Olympic sports debut at Athens in 2004.

A new study from ABI Research indicates that Bluetooth-enabled equipment shipments in Asia will reach 982 million units in 2013, representing a compound annual growth rate of 39% over 2006 shipments.

While Bluetooth has been in the market for almost a decade, it has not proliferated widely in Asia. However, the picture is changing, especially when it comes to cellular handsets, the study said.