DeviceGuru

Two clever enhancements now in development will allow the ubiquitous — but slow — Bluetooth wireless technology to handle much larger amounts of data at much higher speeds, reports ABI Research.

This will significantly increase Bluetooth’s usefulness, making it a kind of multi-purpose “Swiss Army Knife” among protocols, and entrenching its already strong position in portable electronics, according to the market analyst firm.

“The Bluetooth SIG has announced work on what they call an ‘Alternate MAC/PHY‘ (AMP), which will be a combination of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi,” says ABI senior analyst Douglas McEuen. “It will be a software upgrade for devices equipped with both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chips, allowing Bluetooth to utilize Wi-Fi when larger files must be transmitted. Once that transfer is complete, it will fall back to standard Bluetooth.”

The long term goal in the critical cellular market is to enable Bluetooth to work with ultra-wideband (UWB) as an integrated solution, for an even faster transfer of larger files, explains ABI. That would open the possibility of the Bluetooth platform as a video connectivity solution.

“The SIG is trying to position Bluetooth as a kind of catch-all platform that can do everything,” McEuen adds. “Classic Bluetooth will take care of your voice applications. AMP Bluetooth will allow you that extra kick when you need it. And further down the road, high-speed Bluetooth with UWB will offer huge data rates.”

Some first products incorporating the AMP-enhanced Bluetooth may be in the market early next year, according to ABI. For UWB, a more likely timeframe is the end of 2009 or early 2010 for the very first sample products. Portable media devices will probably be the first sweet spot, since these are devices that are using “classic” Bluetooth already.

ABI’s recent study, entitled “Bluetooth: The Global Outlook,” addresses the major applications and variations of Bluetooth, and discusses other wireless connectivity IC integration. The report also includes extensive analysis of the equipment and semiconductor markets.

[This research brief is copyright © 2008 ABI Research. All rights reserved. Reproduced by DeviceGuru.com with permission.]

Note
A brief technical overview of the Bluetooth SIG‘s proposed Alternate MAC/PHY approach is available for download here (Powerpoint file). The Bluetooth SIG plans to publish the core specification for its new Alternate MAC/PHY mode by mid-2009. –DeviceGuru