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New style Bluetooth - from Jabra and Innovi?

The form, they say, follows function. Something that clips to your ear, therefore, is going to have a limited number of forms. But can they get this similar, as they are in Jabra's new FreeSpeak, and Innovi's Bluetrek designs?

Back in May, Hong Kong product designer Innovi announced a contract to buy BlueCore chips from Cambridge Silicon Radio, for a bluetooth headset. This month, Innovi has announced its headset; it's called Bluetrek,

and is visible not only at Innovi's own web site, but also at a special branded Bluetrek site. Note the sleek curve, the shiny grey exterior shell, the darker grey interior shell, the short microphone arm.

It plugs into any audio output socket, giving Bluetooth even to devices where the designer forgot to include Bluetooth (such as, for example, the Jornada pocket PDA phone, or the Orange SPV) in the spec.

At the launch of the Orange SPV phone last week, Jabra announced its FreeSpeak bluetooth headset. In technology terms, it was remarkably similar, including the ability to plug directly into the audio socket of a non-bluetooth device. By contrast, however,

the FreeSpeak has a sleek curve, a shiny grey exterior shell, a darker grey interior shell, and a short microphone arm. Indeed, apart from the redesigned internal earpiece and microphone, function has dictated a remarkable similarity in form.

As well as the Orange version, Verizon has announced its own FreeSpeak package - a deal announced October 28th claiming that Verizon is "the first nationwide carrier" to adopt the gadget.

In the original press release, CSR described Innovi as an OEM supplier. Could it be a design house, too? Or is this just one of those coincidences?