Bluetooth 4.0 Goes Green with Ultra-low Power Edition

The governing body of the Bluetooth specification has released the 4.0 guidelines in what promises to be a more widely adopted version of Bluetooth. Bluetooth 3.0 is not reaching wide adoption yet due to a number of factors, mostly economic. More speed requires more power and more battery power. Battery technology has not kept up with bandwidth. Bluetooth 4.0 promises to do more with less which may stimulate device manufacturers and starved R&D groups to employ it in their existing applications. Also, data transfer rates are not currently the same kind of bottleneck for device usage that 'size' is. The Bluetooth 4.0 promises to work in smaller devices thus requiring less power, less battery and therefore less bulk.

Bluetooth 4.0 also heads down 2 paths for even more power saving, dual-mode and single-mode. Dual-mode which can alternate between high-speed and low-power modes for multi-role or data intensive uses, like computers and cell phones. The single-mode chipset will be for the ultra low power uses like location tags and reporting sensors. Some of the envisioned uses are air pressure sensors in your car's tires, key fobs, etc. The group expects to see Bluetooth 4.0 products shipping in the summer of 2010. I'm still looking for Bluetooth 3.0 products, let's hope 4 fares better.