Here is my contribution to this interesting discussion:

- Exchanging MP3 files by Bluetooth is easy and fast enough. I think Bluetooth is even faster than 3G most of the time.

- Bluetooth file sharing is not a worldwide Tsunami yet. Bluetooth Awareness is very different from country to country. In number of users, the UK is the #1 country for Bluetooth messaging (File sharing, Bluejacking, Toothing…). And the Middle East is #1 for adoption rate and the density of users. If you have the opportunity to go to a mall in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait for example… you could be surprised by the intense Bluetooth messaging activity!

- Bluetooth file sharing will not allow you to find a specific ringtone in your vicinity. It is more a new way to socialize (like asking for a cigarette before). In Real Life, this is the most common scenario: Tom is talking with a group of friends at school when his phone rings. His phone plays “Goodbye my lover” from James Blunt! Everybody is surprised and envious. All the girls are asking Tom: “Send it to me! Please!”. What a dream
Other scenario: Linda is having an ice cream at Haagen Dasz with her friends. Her Nokia on the table in front of her beeps and asks “Accept a Bluetooth message from BradPit?”! Of course! After a few seconds her phone plays the latest Shakira hit. Several boys at a nearby table are looking to her and smiling…

- In order to send an MP3 file by Bluetooth to another phone you don’t need any specific application. The file transfer is using the standard OBEX (Object Exchange) Bluetooth protocol supported by 95% of Bluetooth phones. For example, if you are using MobiLuck on your phone you can send sounds to other Bluetooth phones very easily, even if they don’t have MobiLuck. 27% of MobiLuck users think that “File sharing” is one of the best benefits of the application.

Olivier

I think that as devices get WiFi, the providers must learn to appropriately price and allow for sharing of content else they will fall into the illegal trap you mention. Creating apps that improve the browsing of my buddies contents . . . allow streaming, but prevent copying and send me a link to a $.25 download, I’d pull down the songs that I enjoyed – wouldnt you?

Sorry for late response;)

Ofcourse with mobile technology i believe there is a kind of convenience race that IP owners have to play against users’ friends. Can they reach a user, and sell them something, before that user is given the same product free by a friend.
If a kid could have as much fun with a mobile portal as they could interacting with a friend’s phone there could be less of a line between buying and swapping. i’m sure this is only scratching the surface of retailing strategy in a digitally connected market.

For me and my development aspirations it’s down to a protocal called JSR75, something which allows j2me applications to access a handsets contents. This protocal in many handsets, coupled with broadband style mobile data packages, should bring some healthy HTTP sharing and all kinds of other great things…

I also think there’s an opportunity for an app that makes exploring someone’s library and sharing it easier. Not sure what the biz model would be though.

Nokia is giving Sensor away free, at least for the moment.

Russell

But to be clear: I neither want to ridicule BT file-sharing. I only think it won’t be as epidemic as “real” file-sharing.

As I write that I ponder if the present kind of BT file-sharing might even not be a “network”. It rather alway constitutes a 1-1 connection ad hoc. And this doesn’t only depend on the physical limitation of BT. It is rather the same why IM file sharing never really take off (or has it?). The point is that – if there is no special application – you can only send each other files. You don’t really “share” your library, hence you can’t search etc… It is like giving you a copy as cassettte of my Vinyl except that is doesn’t cost 30 cents and the copy is perfect.

This isn’t really the case with Bluetooth because there’s no network, per se. If another person gets a Bluetooth phone, the value of Bluetooth for file-sharing doesn’t increase to me the same way another person getting on Kazaa and putting their music library on there does.

This is the reason why things like Sensor have such a hard time getting going. There are too many variables to let the network grow quickly and easily. I have to be near you, have a phone that can run the app, a phone that’s got Bluetooth, have Bluetooth turned on, have the app, have it running, etc etc. It’s the antithesis of something like Skype, where I just turn the app on and I’m plugged in to a whole network of people with whom I can communicate with.

As you say, it’s fairly irrelevant if people can get the files they want in spite of the limitations. And I also agree that this type of file-sharing does go on.

But, that said, I don’t think it’s going to be anywhere near as big a “problem” for the music industry as wired P2P. Not for quite a while, anyway.

Getting back to a point you made in the original point, Russell, this is just further evidence that the music business needs to evolve. This isn’t a new “problem”, it’s the same one, just via a different method. The real problem here — the music industry’s outmoded business models — hasn’t changed either.

However, just because a network is local doesn’t necessarily make it less efficient. In some ways it makes it more powerful, as you can see who you’re sharing with and therefore you’re less likely to upload to a hostile source or download from one or an infected source, for that matter.

The key to the power of the network here is; can an individual obtain the files they really want from a local network? If yes, the location dimension is irrelevant. If no, then it’s a problem.

A further aspect of its power is that recruitment to the network is easier and more powerful as it relies purely on word of mouth. In other words, newbies can have it explained to them, even if they’re technically illiterate, as the person recruiting them is standing right next to them.

I don’t have any particular interest in promoting file sharing via Bluetooth, but it is happening in the UK and it’s also being promoted by Nokia – not just via the bFree experiment, but this is intrinsic to Sensor, for example.

Russell

How about Skype, sms, email, Hotmail and Napster – weren’t they all examples of 1-to-1? Or have I missed the point you’re making here?

Russell