Bluetooth 4.1 Slated To Roll Out In 2014

It was a big day for Bluetooth today as the Bluetooth Special Interest Group officially adopted the 4.1 standard. The update is the first in over three years and will hopefully deliver better reliability and a bevy of new features. Since the update is entirely software based, the majority of Android smartphones and tablets will be able to utilize it via a patch, which should begin rolling out in early 2014.

What should you expect? For one thing, Bluetooth 4.1 will have a longer memory, so you won’t need to re-pair your phone with your car every time you want to use it. Perhaps most significantly, the standard will allow for bulk data transfer, which can come in handy when you don’t have a USB cord around. It was also address interference issues between Bluetooth and LTE.

"Bluetooth Smart technology put us on a rocket ship of growth, with Bluetooth annual product shipment projections skyrocketing to more than 4.5 billion in the next five years," said Suke Jawanda, Bluetooth SIG CMO in a press statement. "We updated the Bluetooth specification to address this projected growth, making changes to give developers more control in assigning a role to their product, limiting interference with other wireless technologies, and allowing Bluetooth Smart products to exchange data faster and maintain connections with less manual intervention.”

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group says the 4.1 standard will also lay the groundwork for “future protocols providing IP connectivity”, meaning more rudimentary Bluetooth devices will have a direct pipeline to the Internet.

“These updates reflect the demand we see in the market. We will continue to sculpt Bluetooth wireless technology to extend its critical role in enabling the Internet of Things and ensure it is the very best solution for OEMs, developers and, ultimately, consumers," Jawanda said.

Bluetooth has been around for a while. Ericsson originally launched it in 1994 as a wireless alternative to RS-232 data cables, which today have been mostly phased out by USB. Bluetooth lived on, though, and enjoyed a renaissance of sorts due to the mass adoption of mobile devices in the last decade.