I think the Bluetooth concept and more importantly the Bluetooth vision is not being marketed well. Wireless mice and keyboards are already on the market (RF) as are IrDA (still remember that?) printers/PDAs. So why should someone be interested in Bluetooth and the higher expense of BT devices? If a consumer looks at Bluetooth products in isolation they will be confused.
Bluetooth is about changing the way peripherals interoperate within a work area. A computer is used in conjunction with one or more peripherals: a mouse, a keyboard, a printer, a PDA, a graphics tablet, a microphone, a speaker, a cellphone, etc. This set of devices constitutes a work area and is riddled with wires. Wouldn't it be nice if the work area of the future employed a secure, short-range standard wireless protocol allowing work area devices to interoperate, even to discover each other, without wires and without hassles? Future Bluetooth standards might raise the transfer speeds enough to also support (compressed) video (iSight). This level of convenience would justify the extra cost - initially, of course.
I think wireless networking was also met with some skepticism, but it did not last this long. I remember Apple's debut of AirPort which, I believe, was the first consumer application of 802.11b. At the introduction I remember thinking to myself...huh? I did not get it. At the time 100 Base-T was the dominant standard and Gigabit Ethernet was the future. But with 802.11b we were taking a step in the backwards direction, back to 11 Mbit. So I passed on it.
However, 18 months ago the talk about wireless networks was everywhere and I decided I would try it for myself. Wow! I was impressed. The speeds were more than acceptable and I could move freely around the house and in the back yard while surfing through my DSL connection. Soon everyone popped wireless cards into their laptops and desktops, and the home was fully networked.
We finally got it, but it was not because of any marketing or advertising I had come across. It was through word of mouth, particularly my peers.
Today, I'm the only one in my world who has Bluetooth. And I'm paying more for BT peripherals simply because I have bought into the vision of a work area where all peripherals interoperate through proximity sensors alone.
P.S. I am a BMW fan, so I was delighted to read that the new 5-Series offers Bluetooth connectivity for cell phones. A phone-specific cradle is still needed to connect to the car's microphone and audio systems, but the rest of the hands-free operation takes place through Bluetooth. For example, dialing a number or viewing the phonebook on the iDrive screen is handled via Bluetooth. I believe the cradle is only needed for analog sound I/O.
This is important because it's no longer necessary to buy the cellphone from BMW. Just BYOC -- bring your own cellphone.
