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Bluetooth roadmap points to a double speed boost in 2016

The Bluetooth SIG has announced double the transfer speed and four times the distance for future Bluetooth IoT devices arriving in 2016.
By
November 12, 2015
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The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has today given out a few details about its 2016 roadmap, which has a big focus on Internet of Things applications, including smart home, infrastructure and location based services.

The big take away is that the future Bluetooth standard will be much faster and work over longer distances than it does today. For example, Bluetooth Smart will increase the range of the standard four fold, which is very useful for connecting small devices up over longer distances. The standard will also double the transfer speed without requiring any additional power. Energy efficiency is particularly important for IoT devices.

“Current projections put the market potential for IoT between $2 and $11.1 trillion by 2025. The technical updates planned for Bluetooth technology in 2016 will help make these expectations a reality and accelerate growth in IoT.” – Bluetooth SIG Board of Directors Chairman, Toby Nixon

Bluetooth SIG is also working on mesh networking technology, enabling devices to work together to cover much larger areas. This could include an entire office building or outdoor network. The Bluetooth Smart Mesh Working Group is overseeing these requirements.

Given that Bluetooth is a big part of modern day consumer electronics, these improvements are certainly welcome and should open up some doors to interesting new smart connected products too.