Bluetooth headset is the second largest Bluetooth application. According to IMS official market reports, in 2007 the overall global shipments of Bluetooth headset is 67 million units, in 2008 is expected to be 81 million. In Chinese market, the Bluetooth headset is the Bluetooth devices with second largest shipments . In addition, China is also a major center of global manufacturing Bluetooth headset. It is estimated that more than 60 percent of the global Bluetooth headset was designed by Chinese ODM / OEM or production, including Nokia, Motorola and Samsung as well as other top-brand Bluetooth headsets.

However, compared with the current annual output of more than 1 billion worldwide number of mobile phones, 80 million Bluetooth headsets are still very weak, especially now when the Bluetooth has become the standard configuration of mobile phone. In other words, more than 90% of users having a Bluetooth phone does not use the Bluetooth function.

"This situation will gradually change, along with more and more stringent restrictions on the taxi drivers’using cell phones in many countries. Besides, Bluetooth headset has become increasingly diverse and the Bluetooth headset market prospect is very broad. However, at present the development of Bluetooth headset, especially stereo headset has been hindered by four major technical factors " as CSR Manager , China Woosung said.

Then, he further explained as follows: First, the current price of a stereo Bluetooth headset is still expensive. Specifically, the current price of Bluetooth stereo headphones is more than twice the price of mono headset. The price of some professional stereo headphones is even higher.

Second, the current power consumption of stereo headphones is high, leading to poor applicability. Such as the current mainstream stereo headphones on the market can only play for 1 to 2 hours, but now the phone is able to play MP3 / MP4 for more than five hours, so it’s shorter than the phone's headphone playback time;

Third, stereo headset solutions are only a few. And not many ODMs are able to design a good stereo headset .most ODM will focus on mono headset;

Finally, due to the decoding conversion problems, playback quality of stereo headphones on the audio is even worse than a wired headset.

"Due to the four reasons above, stereo headphone users is still very small." as Woosung said. 'so, CSR has been improved In view of these questions, and later the latest stereo headset solution has been launched -BlueTunes ROM. It has achieved the best headset solution on BC5 Multimedia chip. "                         

Specifically, BlueTunes ROM has achieved several improvements as following: First, the original Flash circuit headset requires has changed into ROM circuit, which provides a direct way for users. The majority of previous research did by customers before are replaced in ROM. so that customers can quickly launch products. Meanwhile, the use of ROM costs much less The second improvement is that BlueTunes ROM directly integrated MP3 decoding and SBC decoding, so the headphones can play directly in MP3 format and it has a higher sound quality than the current SBC format. SNR can reach 95dB; at the same time consumption of both mobile phone and headphones decline sharply for there is no need for phone and headphones to transcode.

 Third, the use of a CSR unique FastStream technology shorten the delay of Bluetooth transmission. "If you do not adopt this technology, delay may be 200ms, after adoption, the delay can be reduced to 28 to 34ms, so it can be a good solution to the present problem that pictures and sound are not synchronized." Fourth, BC5 Multimedia integrates a DSP, which can eliminate the echo and noise of CVC. "Many users complained that the Bluetooth headset can not eliminate ambient noise when they are calling someone, but we can solve this problem this new program ." as Woosung represented. Its single microphone can reach up to 10dB noise suppression; it is estimated the optional dual microphone may arrive at 30dB. Last but not the least, BC5 Multimedia is a highly integrated solution, with DSP and RISC processor, stereo decoder, battery charge management, Bluetooth radio and ROM inside. Customers can complete stereo headset design simply with a crystal earplug. Therefore, cost can be substantially reduced

"With this new program, the cost of stereo headphones can be reduced by more than 50 percent." as Woosung said, "And, when a 180- mA battery can play music for 10 hours , you can achieve 12 to 16 hours’ talk time with CVC software.

As Woosung introduced, at present, CSR program has occupied more than 80% share of the global headphones chip shipments, as of April this year, CSR headset market shipments reached 150 million. "Our programs and mainstream mobile phone headsets are tested by IOT, and compatibility is no problem." He said.

In fact, for MTK has made Bluetooth become mobiles’ standard configuration, market growth point for independent Bluetooth chip manufactures is not mobile phones but other markets. The headset market will be their best choice. Therefore, except CSR, other Bluetooth chip makers are also very concerned about the market, such as Accel Semiconductor. Shen Zhiqiang, director of marketing, said theire company would exploit stereo Bluetooth headset solution soon. "In addition to the mobile phone Bluetooth headset and MP3 / MP4 Bluetooth headphones, Bluetooth stereo audio applications, Bluetooth hands-free devices, Bluetooth and video applications, and medical applications are very good chioces for Bluetooth market in the near future