Editor Notes: ” The cumbersome pairing process is about to become a thing of the past.The next generation of Bluetooth devices will have quadruple the range and double the speed of what is currently available thanks to Bluetooth 5.0, which was announced today by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) and will be available to device manufacturers as early as this fall.”
Bluetooth 5.0’s specs are mostly in line with what SIG hinted last fall, when its chairman Toby Nixon said there is “a significant demand” to enhance Bluetooth. That demand stems in large part from devices connected to the Internet of Things, especially low-power beacons.
“Increasing operation range will enable connections to IoT devices that extend far beyond the walls of a typical home, while increasing speed supports faster data transfers and software updates for devices,” SIG Executive Director Mark Powell said in a statement. “And now with the ability to broadcast a much richer set of information, Bluetooth 5 will make beacons, location awareness, and other connectionless services an even more relevant part of an effortless and seamless IoT experience.”
That richer set of information is thanks to what is perhaps Bluetooth 5.0’s most important feature: connectionless data transfers. Long the bane of consumers trying to set up wireless keyboards and connect portable speakers to their smartphones, the Bluetooth pairing process could soon be a thing of the past.
Instead of automatically requesting to pair with a device, Bluetooth 5.0 will be smart enough to analyze the type of connection required to transmit the information. Warehouse managers, for instance, will be able to pinpoint an item in their inventory just by walking through the stacks. Travelers will be able to find the nearest Starbucks in a foreign airport without a Wi-Fi or 4G connection.
Of course, these and many other IoT tasks are already possible with the current generation of IoT devices. But Bluetooth’s advantage is its ubiquity. There are currently 8.2 billion products using Bluetooth, according to SIG, which estimates it will be installed in one-third of all IoT devices by 2020.
Bluetooth 5.0 is slated for release late 2016 to early 2017, SIG says.