Bluetooth 4.0 specification gets official, devices expected by Q4 2010
By Darren Murph 
posted July 7th 2010 2:00AM
posted July 7th 2010 2:00AM
Outside of Samsung's Wave, we're having a hard time thinking of a meaningful device that has shipped with Bluetooth 3.0 onboard. Kind of crazy when you think about it, being that the protocol offered some pretty promising stuff when it went official in April of 2009. Fast forward to today, and it looks as if the Bluetooth SIG is storming forward regardless, as the Bluetooth 4.0 core specification has now been adopted with "low energy technology" as the standout feature. This step means that companies can begin to work towards integration of BT 4.0 in actual end-user products, and if the SIG has its way, the tech will begin to show up in minuscule devices that haven't been able to take advantage of Bluetooth thus far. In fact, they want this stuff in applications "not even possible or imagined today." Looks like someone better get those imagination gears turning, 'cause Q4 2010 certainly isn't an eternity from now. BLUETOOTH SIG OPENS QUALIFICATION PROGRAM FOR BLUETOOTH CORE SPECIFICATION VERSION 4.0
Kirkland, WA, USA
Hallmark Low Energy Feature Opens Doors to New Applications in Health Care, Fitness, Security and Home Entertainment
Kirkland, WA, July 6, 2010 - The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) today announced the formal adoption of Bluetooth Core Specification Version 4.0, with the hallmark feature, low energy technology. This final step in the adoption process signals to Bluetooth SIG members that the Bluetooth SIG Qualification Program is now open for qualification of all Bluetooth product types to the Version 4.0 Specification.
"The finalization of Bluetooth low energy wireless technology within the Core Specification is a monumental achievement," said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director, Bluetooth SIG. "Bluetooth wireless technology can now, with the hard work of our members and our world-class qualification program, really do it all."
Members may visit Bluetooth.org to download specification details from the Adopted Specifications web page. Test documentation, including requirements and tools to support member qualification efforts, is available on the member site as well.
Market Opportunity
In a report out last week from West Technology Research Solutions, the opportunity for Bluetooth low energy technology, the hallmark feature of Version 4.0, was found to be considerable. Said Kirsten West, principal analyst with WTRS: "Bluetooth low energy will be a significant contributor to the overall Wireless Sensor Network market, representing nearly half of all shipments in 2015. The advantage to this new protocol is that it is totally optimized for low power battery operation."
The hallmark feature enhancement to the Specification, Bluetooth low energy technology opens entirely new markets for devices requiring low cost and low power wireless connectivity, creating an evolution in Bluetooth wireless technology that will enable a plethora of new applications – some not even possible or imagined today. Many markets such as health care, sports and fitness, security, and home entertainment will be enhanced with the availability of small coin-cell battery powered wireless products and sensors now enabled by Bluetooth wireless technology.
Bluetooth low energy wireless technology, the hallmark feature of the v4.0 Bluetooth Core Specification, features:
• Ultra-low peak, average and idle mode power consumption
• Ability to run for years on standard coin-cell batteries
• Low cost
• Multi-vendor interoperability
• Enhanced range
Interoperability Testing and Qualification
Bluetooth SIG members may perform interoperability testing utilizing this adopted Bluetooth Core Specification at the SIG's 37th testing event, UnPlugFest (UPF) 37. This UPF is scheduled for 04-08 October, 2010, in Barcelona, Spain. Members are encouraged to use this opportunity to test their devices against the new Bluetooth v4.0 implementations as well as against current Bluetooth devices from the organization's device library.
For intensive, hands-on testing and qualification training, Bluetooth SIG members can take part in ATLAS, the Advanced Training Lab and Services program offered by the Bluetooth SIG. The one-week training program at the Bluetooth SIG labs in Kirkland, WA, leaves participants with the knowledge to develop their own Bluetooth testing and qualification expertise and ultimately build better Bluetooth products at lower qualification costs.
About Bluetooth® Wireless Technology
Bluetooth wireless technology is the global short-range wireless standard for personal connectivity of a broad range of electronic devices. The technology continues to evolve, building on its inherent strengths – small-form factor radio, low power, low cost, built-in security, robustness, ease-of-use, and ad hoc networking abilities. This evolution now provides manufacturers and consumers with three options for connecting wirelessly – Classic Bluetooth technology for use in a wide range of consumer electronics; Bluetooth high speed technology for the transfer of video, music and photos between phones, cameras, camcorders, PCs and TVs; and Bluetooth low energy technology for low power sensor devices and new web services within the healthcare, fitness, security, home entertainment, automotive and automation industries. More than eight new Bluetooth enabled products are qualified every working day and more than 19 million Bluetooth units are shipping per week. There are nearly three billion Bluetooth devices in the marketplace and that number climbs daily, making it the only proven wireless choice for developers, product manufacturers, and consumers worldwide.
About Bluetooth low energy Wireless Technology
Bluetooth low energy technology is a new low energy enhancement to the Bluetooth wireless technology Core Specification that paves the way to a vast new market for watches, remote controls, and healthcare and sports sensors. It has the potential to communicate with the hundreds of millions of Bluetooth enabled mobile phones, PCs and PDAs that are shipped each year. Consuming minimal power, it offers long-lasting connectivity, dramatically extending the range of potential applications and opening the door to brand new web services. Bluetooth low energy features ultra-low peak, average and idle mode power consumption; ultra-low cost plus small size for accessories and human interface devices (HIDs); minimal cost and size addition to handsets and PCs; global, intuitive and secure multi-vendor interoperability.
About the Bluetooth SIG
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), comprised of leaders in the telecommunications, computing, consumer electronics, automotive and network industries, is driving development of Bluetooth wireless technology and bringing it to market. The Bluetooth SIG includes Promoter member companies Ericsson, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia and Toshiba, along with over 13,000 Associate and Adopter member companies. The Bluetooth SIG, Inc. headquarters are located in Kirkland, Washington, U.S.A. For more information please visit www.bluetooth.com.
So are we completely skipping 3.0? I was actually looking forward to the features of 3.0...mainly the higher throughput and higher range.
@Teerim Crap, I lied, cat connectivity was the feature to look for.
@Teerim
what the crap are you talking about?!
@Teerim
"Outside of Samsung's Wave, we're having a hard time thinking of a meaningful device that has shipped with Bluetooth 3.0 onboard."
Umm, Engadget, are you completely ignoring the Nokia N8? it has Bluetooth 3.0 and is one of THE MOST anticipated devices of 2010! Geez!
@statickeith That *HAS* shipped, not has BEEN ANNOUNCED.
However, what Engadget misses is that the Galaxy S has been available in countless countries and has bluetooth 3.0.
@statickeith the N8 is one attractive piece of hardware. The OS and UI scare me though. S60 was a nightmare at times. My 3 months with the N97 was horrible. Never have I appreciated my Android phone more, the OS I once denounced in its 1.5 days.
@Teerim
4.0?! I barely have 2.0!
@Teerim My Acer 1830T has 3.0.
@iamsupreme
I like the camera ofthe n8, but the device itself looks like a sidekick without the slideout keyboard or a first gen DS with a screen on the front
@iamsupreme
I'm in the same boat as you. My 5800 is giving me a hard time to work with. However, Symbian^3 is supposed to be improving on symbian s60 5th. S60 on non touch screen was much better. However, when it was translated into a touch-friendly OS, the result was horrible. Tons of mistakes were present. And S^3 is just Symbian without all those mistakes. So Nokia has learned from it's mistakes (hopefully) and people who have actually had a chance to play with the prototype were more than pleased to use it. They thought symbian 3 was a huge improvement and so IMO, N8 won't be that bad which is why I'm lookin forward to buying that beauty (coz I'm a camera and music freak and I like Nokia too)
:)
@jayayess1190 ...again, "meaningful", reading for comprehension doesn't seem to be this threads' strong suit. Bluetooth is nice in a computer but it doesn't have nearly the benefits that comes in/with a phone (mostly due to hands-free requirements), IMHO, even if you do enjoy some music or other things through the bluetooth. Again, it mostly matters even on the utilization level.
@statickeith. I'm in the same boat. Have a 5800XM...very capable with lot's of features at the time...but doggy...with an awkward UI . From what I see, Symbian^3 takes all the advantages of the OS and packages them in a modern UI. Symbian^4 is supposed to take the smartphone OS to a new level, but since apps with be backward compatible within the Qt framework...the N8 is going to be an excellent addition with long legs. I'm glad that Nokia is taking a bit more time to ensure the N8 performance at launch is smooth. It seems the market is so hyper-competitive these days, many products are getting rushed out the door prematurely (e.g.: iPhone 4).
@Teerim
You know, with how small this device can be and how small its battery could be, I'm maybe thinking of a solar powered bluetooth memory stick pen!! Or is that just a dream too far, could be some sort of badge!!
Outside of Samsung's Wave, we're having a hard time thinking of a meaningful device that has shipped with Bluetooth 3.0 onboard.
Wait! what?
>>> Samsung Galaxy S
@Teerim And people think that Android moves forward too fast...
Is this Sparta?!
@CCarmichael Lol
Will someone work on the battery tech please...please!
@GreenLeaf
How about energy in general? It would be the most beneficial investment. I'm sure everyone's tired of hearing about oil and lithium, just like VHS is vanishing because of DVDs, and now Blu-ray is taking over.
@ryan420
Nah, blu-ray is still really a niche thing, because they are so expensive. The average person still probably hesitant to pay the $15-20 for a regular DVD. And unless they got a PS3 or went out and bought a standalone blu-ray player... they cannot play those. DVDs will be around for a long while... Blu-ray is like getting the beamer of the chevy.
@Dellibedaboss
*over the Chevy ... *doh*
@Dellibedaboss
I'm from the uk, and blue-ray and DVD are pretty much the same price, i didnt think i was going to get into blue-ray for years but i now have a quite good sized blue-ray collection! I mean some of them are not as cheap as standard DVD's, but actually match the price of the special addition DVD's, but then almost every Blue-ray i have bought has all the special addition stuff on it anyway!! Is it the same in America???
might NOT be an eternity from now..but when it comes waiting for shiny new tech, it ALWAYS feels like it
so wat is the point of this??? . . . It gives no specs of bluetooth 4.0 it self & it never said it was bluetooth class 1 to extend range & I'm guessing the mbps transfer rate stays the same 2 keep it "low power" . . . Sooo yeaaa
if you are not getting max speed you are holding it wrong!
@lord voldemort Shut the fuck up
Im sick and tired of all these iphone 4 jokes.
I have been to the apple store and have the iphone and havnt actually seen this problem once and have tried all the "wrong" ways of holding it.
Havnt lost one bar
And yea im posting this from my iphone while holding it the "wrong" way
@benappelhof don't get your panties in a twist. Most sites report that the antenna issues are unequal between phones, of course if that's true Apple will showcase phones in the store that don't show the problem. Additionally, perhaps they are finally (and quietly) doing something about it such as a special coating to avoid the attenuation due to touching the antenna with your hands directly.
These things don't negate an obvious design flaw. I am glad your device works and suits you well, but your attitude is unnecessary.
@juanvaldez Yes sorry for the over reaction
Just a little fed up that people are so one sided in the way that they have to dog for flaws in other phone os's to make theres better
Me i like android and ios4 i was going to wait for the droid x untilmthis came out.
The big reason i got this is because i want to use face time with my relitives and i dont know about another phone with this well designed of a feature
@benappelhof No problem, it wasn't the greatest of jokes and getting old, I agree with your sentiment even though I'm not a big fan of Apple these days.
@Engadget, Galaxy S has shipped over 1million units worldwide and has Bluetooth 3.0. 200K in Korea sales alone in 10 days.
Once it gets into the US it'll have upwards of 2M internationally.
@juanvaldez
Officials added that Samsung has already received 1 million PRE-ORDERS from the operators (not from customers).
They maybe will reach that amount of units sold maybe in some months.
@JAG Firstly, I said shipped intentionally. Secondly, in SK, a market much smaller than the EU and the US, has *sold*, again an intentional and important use of proper terms here (though to further add, in SK Samsung does have an ability to book sales early, but all reports were of the device actually selling out every day for the first 5 days available in SK). Their first market they entered, was Singapore, Singtel sold out of the device on the launch weekend....
Needless to say, I'm pretty confident with my appraisal of the situation and with the 2M quote, I'm adding less than 1M *shipments* to 5 carriers in the US which is very conservative.
@juanvaldez Further clarification on the way Samsung books sales in Korea, IIRC when they ship something to their corporate stores they count this as a sale, and when they ship to their partners (read: carriers) they don't book the sale.
*I put this separate because I'm only 60% sure IRC and it's not very important/doesn't affect the numbers much do to the initial sell-outs.
Again, within the first 2-3 months this device is available in SK alone it should push 1M in *sales* (not shipments).
where's that blue tooth cat pic, I liked that one better
Oh snap.
Seriously, does anyone REALLY care about this?
How about reducing power consumption of phone components that actually affect the battery, like the screen.
@Spaceshipped It's a nice added benefit, nothing that will be a make or break to most users, but to some maybe, and with all things equal then it can be a deciding factor.
@Spaceshipped Bluetooth isn't just used in phones. The low power (Wibee) is for things like sensors. These may be made with alternative charge methods such as small solar panels, power from motion/vibration or power from radio waves. If a traditional button cell is used the sensor could last up to a year.
@Spaceshipped
Oled??
looks like a young Ruth Evershed from Spooks
Obviously its still got some issues.. Looks like she's having hearing the output.
I believe the Galaxy-S smartphones with Android (Samsung) have BT3. I guess the thing is, what does it offer (and what is supported) with this in contrast to BT2.1 on practical devices?
And you guys went crazy when Microsoft doubted about 3.0+ for Windows 8...
Everything happens for a reason, yes, even Vista...
... so wait buying usb 3.0 laptops (pc')
but how we dispose the old things
my microsoft bluetooth mouse 5000 still has lag in windows 7 with bluetooth 2.0 EDR