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Retailer turns over £250,000 selling just Bluetooth products - nothing else

It's often claimed that Bluetooth "isn't happening" - by people who, perhaps, would rather it didn't happen. So how has a startup specialist retailer in Liverpool managed to sell more than a quarter of a million pounds worth of Bluetooth gear in its first year?

You can, of course, buy a Bluetooth phone from Carphone Warehouse; or a Bluetooth camcorder from Dixons, or a Bluetooth access point from.. well, not too many people, actually. But there's a good argument for buying it from Blueunplugged - a specialist Web-based retailer of everything Bluetooth, and nothing else - because Blueunplugged can quite probably tell you whether what you are going to buy, will actually work.

Look for the Genie on their site.

It's not an advert, and it's not a gimmick; it's a functional device for matching Bluetooth components that will work together. For example, there isn't (yet) a Bluetooth-equipped PC on the market yet which will talk to a wireless headset, because none of the notebooks has a headset "profile" - software built into it to recognise a headset, and set up an appropriate link.

"If you do want to talk with a PC as your connection, you'll have to buy the Troy Windport Bluetooth card, because it's the only one which has a headset profile," said Blueunplugged founder and CEO, David Bell. "The fact is, nobody else would be able to tell you this, because we're the only people who sell everything Bluetooth, and test it all when it comes in. We know what works together."

The shop will probably not appear on the high street - at least, not yet. But it will be putting up its counters in public, in Amsterdam in June, at the Bluetooth Congress, where the show organisers have asked Bell to run a sales booth in partnership with them.

Sadly, it looks like they won't be carrying the new Sony Bluetooth camcorders, because they are concentrating on small devices - easily taken to Amsterdam, and easily taken home by customers.

"It's the first time the organisers have had a place to buy things, and we're pretty excited," admitted Bell. "If it works, we'll probably do it again, with more variety; but this time, we're restricting ourselves to just one example of every type of technology; one phone maker, one access point supplier, and so on. We've already signed up TDK and Sony-Ericsson; we're talking to people like Brainboxes and 3Com, and with access point providers like Inventel, Pico, Siemens, Red-M."

Reach Bell at +44 (0) 151 250 1520 or email him at davebell@blueunplugged.com.