A Bluetooth killer or an enhancer? Seems Nokia's announcement today about its Wibree technology may be either one.
A unique radio technology extending local connectivity to small devices, Wibree is an open industry initiative developed by Nokia Research Center.
It complements other local connectivity technologies, consuming only a fraction of the power compared to other radio technologies, therfore enabling smaller and less costly solutions.
Wibree is the first open technology offering connectivity between mobile devices or Personal Computers and small, button cell battery power devices, such as watches, wireless keyboards, toys and sports sensors.
With a goal of having the new technology available as soon as possible, Nokia is defining the Wibree interoperability specification together with a group of companies representing semiconductor manufacturers, device vendors and qualification service providers. These include Broadcom Corporation, CSR, Epson and Nordic Semiconductor as well as Suunto and Taiyo Yuden.
Sounds pretty cool ...
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You aren't kidding about Nokia being busy. They seem to be coming out with all kinds of things for their mobile technology.
One I just read about and had never heard of before was called Nokia Sensor. From what I understand you can have personal "pages" on your phone, and others with the Sensor app on a Nokia phone withing Bluetooth range can see the pages.
This Wibree is opening up a whole new angle and dimension on wireless connnectivity. It will be interesting to see where companies go with this.
It's important to note that this isn’t an alternative for the majority of Bluetooth use cases that include the voice, printing, transfer and music scenarios. As the Nokia release points out, they are focused on sensor applications like the watch. However, like most technologies there is some overlap such as the mention of HID devices in the announcement. There are talks between the Bluetooth SIG and Nokia regarding the future of Wibree but at this point there is nothing concrete to say publicly.
Ultra low power Bluetooth technology is definitely part of our roadmap and the Bluetooth SIG is evaluating Wibree for possible inclusion into the SIG. Just like we are working with the WiMedia Alliance to combine Bluetooth and Ultra Wideband technologies and create a high speed Bluetooth channel, we will work to do the same at the ultra low power level.