Bluetooth technology not just for business blue bloods

Brendan Buhler

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 | 8:37 a.m.

"Boy, did you ever come to the right place," said Stephanie Serra, a wireless cellular phone headset clipped to her ear that looks either like a science-fiction device or a terribly misplaced staple remover.

At the 16th annual Realtor Rally, alliteratively held at the Rio, earpieces such as Serra's were as common as lapel pins and business-card holders. Every now and then a Realtor would touch his hand to his ear and start speaking to the ether.

Realtors and the headsets, known for their wireless technology as "Bluetooth," seem a match made in tech heaven.

"There's always a segment of Realtors who love tech and will have the highest tech they can buy," Serra said. "And we're on the phone just too much. When I'm busy, it's not unusual for me to make and receive 50 phone calls a day."

Serra has had her headset for only a week - it came with her new phone - but she's not going back to the now-archaic notion of pressing a cell phone to her ear. She especially values the hands-free safety of using the headset when she's using her cell phone in her car.

"I could live without it if I needed to," Serra said. "But given the choice, I'd rather not."

Worldwide sales of Bluetooth headsets grew 153 percent to 33 million units in 2005, according to a report released by Strategy Analytics, a Boston-based market research firm. The firm expects sales to top 55 million units this year.

Mitchell Colver, a salesman at the Radio Shack in the Galleria at Sunset mall, said the devices are bought mostly by middle-age businessmen - in part because the top-of-the-line models cost hundreds of dollars.

When the store discounted one model earlier this month to $29, it sold out at Radio Shacks all over town.

Colver said the devices can hardly be considered fashion accessories but that may change as they start to come in colors other than silver and black, such as a new pink model from Motorola.

"Now they're starting to match your outfit," Clover said.

"Part of the reason people don't wear them all the time is because they look kind of gaudy. You walk around looking like some sort of 'Star Trek' Borg. But they're getting smaller and smaller. Eventually they'll be like earrings or something."

Edward Goosun, a salesman at a Verizon cart, thinks Bluetooth headsets (such as the one he keeps on his ear) are already stylish and getting more so, even if not everyone realizes it.

"I did have one costumer tell me that he did not want to look like 'Star Trek,' " Goosun said. "He didn't get one - but his wife did."

Fashion victims or no, Bluetooth users, not having the telltale wire of more primitive headsets, run the risk of accidentally starting conversations with strangers, said Zachary Selby, a general sales manager with Laser World Inc.

"All the time," Selby said, "people think I'm talking to them, and they start talking to me."

"Yeah," co-worker Jeff Stuck interjected. "He's annoying as hell."

Which brings us to etiquette. It's one thing to wander the streets with a wireless headset on, says Peter Post, director of the Emily Post Institute, but, please, take it off when having real, face-to-face conversation with someone because wearing it can be inconsiderate.

"If you're going to have a quiet conversation with somebody, having it on is like saying you're waiting for a call come in and want to be able to grab it quickly," Post said.

While it is OK to use the headset in the grocery store, Post said, don't discuss marital problems or intimate medical issues.

"If that conversation isn't something I'd want posted on a bulletin board for everybody to read, then I probably shouldn't be having it in a grocery store."

One thing definitely not up to Emily Post standards is using it in a movie theater, as Goosun is wont to do.

"I was in the movie theater the other day and took like six calls," Goosun said. "The noise-canceling is great. They don't even know you're in the theater."

Fellow moviegoers only wish they could say the same.