How a marketing accident gave rise to one of the coolest tech brandings: did you know Bluetooth was named after old Danish King, Harald Bluetooth?!
Here’s the story:
Jim Kardach of Intel, who was one of the founders of Bluetooth technology, chose it as a code name for his secret project after a conversation with a friend who was into Scandinavian history.
He chose it because King Harald Bluetooth had united the disparate Danish tribes into a single kingdom, and Bluetooth similarly unites communication protocols.
Bluetooth was only intended as a placeholder until marketing could come up with something really cool!
Marketing came up with either RadioWire or PAN (Personal Area Networking). PAN was the front runner, but it already had tens of thousands of hits throughout the internet.
A trademark search on RadioWire couldn't be completed in time for launch, making Bluetooth the only choice.
The name caught on fast and the rest is history!
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