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Nokia's Wibree Takes on Bluetooth

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the breaking-from-the-herd dept.

narramissic writes "Nokia has developed a new, short-range wireless technology, called Wibree, that it says is a lot more power efficient than Bluetooth, which means it could be used in smaller and less costly devices. It can also use the same radio and antenna components as Bluetooth, helping keep costs down further. Wibree could compete with Bluetooth in the workplace as a way to link keyboards and other peripherals to computers. But it could also have more interesting applications for consumers, in devices such as wrist watches, toys and sports equipment." What does this say about Bluetooth, considering Nokia is a member of the Bluetooth Promoters group?

10 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. It's probably too late by Colin+Smith · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The network effect is cementing bluetooth in place. I can buy bluetooth keyboards, mice, earpieces already. OTOH, like Sony's memory stick, this may just be a way of locking dumb Nokia customers into a proprietary solution.

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    1. Re:It's probably too late by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You laugh, but I would find it useful for my watch alarm to be sync'd with events in my calendar. My mobile 'phone does this already, but I am more likely to have my watch with me than my mobile.

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      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  2. Bluetooth 2.0? by erroneus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Perhaps in the same way USB 2.0 emerged, Bluetooth 2.0 is due? Faster, lower power requirements, backward compatibility. Seems like the natural and sensible thing to do.

  3. It says our worst fears were true... by ivan256 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    What does this say about Bluetooth

    It says that the stupid Trademarkable Name(TM) thing wasn't a one off, and we can expect all future networking interfaces to have some stupid name in the future. Not only will that be insanely annoying, but it will allow companies to collect royalties to be able to claim compatability with 'open' protocols indefinatly. Yes, technology companies have finally found a direct revenue way to exploit the previously harmless trademark laws, and to bypass that pesky patent term length limit.

  4. Security this time? by RedDirt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    One can only hope they've invested more time in securing the communications channel than in Bluetooth. Bluesnarfing for the win! Or something. =/

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  5. Re:Stupid name kills technology by bazorg · · Score: 2, Insightful

    you know you look like an idiot with that earpiece and talking to yourself at Starbucks.The first time I visited a cold snowy place, a lot of people seemed comfortable about walking around with their hands in their pockets and using bluetooth headsets.

  6. The problem with Bluetooth.. by pablo_max · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The main problems with Bluetooth in my mind are complexity and cost. Qualifying a Bluetooth chip is a major pain in the butt. You need to qualify the radio part, the stack and profiles separately depending on what kind of product you have. And speaking of profiles, there are something like 30 Bluetooth profiles. Most of which overlap! So often time when you are implementing one profile you also cover all the mandatory features of another so you have to claim that one as well since you are seen as using that profiles IP! It's crazy.
    Then there is the cost. 10k to list your product. If you want to add something to it after you listed it...10k please. Not to mention the testing. 30k please.
    Bluetooth was going to be less then 2 bucks per radio. It's still almost double that. The Bluetooth SIG is way out of control.
    IMO Nokia is smart to jump ship. However, they cant go it alone. If they were able to get Motorola on board and perhaps Samsung, I can see no reason why a lower cost alternative would not work. Assuming that data rates are there.

  7. my $0.02 of opinion by Goeland86 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Having seen a few presentations about network standards, and especially wireless network standards, I think that Nokia is just trying to enhance the existing technology. Granted, there may not be a strong commercial gain to it, but the fact remains that bluetooth has been a more or less static protocol since its inception. Wifi on the other hand went through several revisions: 802.11a, b/g, now the upcoming n... There's a lot of development put into wifi. I attended a conference from Intel researchers saying they were working on enhancing the 802.11 protocol to work in a de-centralized manner, so I'm looking at this, and I'm thinking: well Wibre might just push Bluetooth further than it is. Using the same hardware base is also good, because it'll bring down manufacturing costs. I'm willing to bet we'll see the Bluetooth consortium jump on the bandwagon and help nokia widespread Wibre under a label like "Bluetooth 2.0" or something similar. Hardware and software updates all the time, why wouldn't protocols?

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    ---- I am certain of only one thing : I know nothing else.
  8. Wibreee vs UWB? by braindead_in · · Score: 2, Insightful

    With Wireless USB http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_USB based on MB-OFDM on the way and backed by big names like Intel, I dont think it stands a chance. The days of proprietary technologies are over. Nobody wants to pay licensing fees anymore.

  9. It says.. by NekoXP · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That Bluetooth isn't cheap or power efficient enough for certain devices.

    That's about all :)

    Not that Bluetooth isn't good and that Nokia don't like promoting it or using it, but Bluetooth is not a panacea - just a standard.