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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. Stupid name kills technology by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sounds like they are trying to succeed in a non-existant market. The actual applications of Bluetooth are few and far between. The 'wireless' office never amounted to much and you know you look like an idiot with that earpiece and talking to yourself at Starbucks.

    So what is a company to do? How about rebrand the technology with a worse name than it originally had? That's the ticket!

    1. Re:Stupid name kills technology by aadvancedGIR · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Funny enough, one of the few clever (and relatively sucessful) application of bluetooth was an universal handfree kit for cars. BTW, we are talking about a phone manufacturer that tells us that soon, the devices they sell will do almost anything except voice calls, so I'm not that surprised.

  2. Too many technologies by ocdude · · Score: 5, Interesting
    While it's always cool to hear about new tech coming out, it makes me crazy when I hear about a new tech that is going to replace an "older" tech when the "older" tech hasn't even been around for too long. So, right now, I don't even own any bluetooth things. If this new Wibree thing starts to proliferate as much as bluetooth, does that mean that now I will have to monitor everything I buy to make sure that it works with my particular hardware? IE will I have to make sure my new laptop has both bluetooth (for "legacy devices) and wibree for whatever nokia throws at us?

    The same can be said about just about any new tech that is to replace and not be compatible with old tech. USB, IMHO, did it right. USB2.0 is backwards compatible with USB1.1

  3. It tell me that ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    ... there is going to be one more application in the ISM band. Not that it is overcrowded already, no.

  4. Doesn't say much by AlastairMurray · · Score: 3, Interesting

    From the summary:

    "What does this say about Bluetooth, considering Nokia is a member of the Bluetooth Promoters group?"

    It says that Bluetooth is years old and now some that is (possibly) better has come along, nothing more.

  5. Wibree vs ZigBee? by uss_valiant · · Score: 2, Interesting
    From TFA:
    Wibree isn't the only contender for use in wireless sensors, however. Zigbee is an ongoing standardization project and has similar characteristics to Wibree.
    I know BT and ZigBee (about ZigBee), but never heard about Wibree. I'm pretty disappointed that Nokia wants to go with this proprietary approach.
    Anyway, there's a lot going on in IEEE 802.15 (Personal Area Network).
  6. I've got Bluetooth on my phone, and never use it. by PHAEDRU5 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have a Nokia phone, and it has Bluetooth.

    When I bought the phone, I also bought a Bluetooth headset. I gave up on the Bluetooth pretty quickly: The headset would only run for about five hours before needing to be recharged, and the phone's standby time was cut down massively.

    This isn't a complaint about Bluetooth as such. It's more that current devices, as delivered, don't provide long-enough standby time, never mind talk time, when Bluetooth is enabled.

    --
    668: Neighbour of the Beast
  7. Bluetooth works fine on a Mac... by SuperKendall · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Hate to bring up the "it just works" thing but Bluetooth works fine on a Mac, with headsets or keyboards or whatever. All new macs come with Bluetooth 2.0 integrated already, and have since the Intel switch (plus a bit before that).

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  8. Bluetooth 2? by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Maybe they would have more luck trying to integrate this into the Bluetooth standard and proposing this as Bluetooth 2, ensuring that it stays compatible. While I understand Nokia trying to provide a new and improved technology, it needs to be done in a way not to confuse the already semi-confused buying public. By making it work with Bluetooth, in the same way as USB 1 and USB 2 or the B, G and A versions of the 802.11 standard.

    --
    Jumpstart the tartan drive.
  9. Re:It says.. by mspohr · · Score: 2, Interesting
    There is already a standard to take care of these issues (IEEE_802.15 and ZigBee) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.15

    We don't need another proprietary standard... it looks like Nokia is just trying to have some standard that they can own so we'll buy more of their stuff... time to run away from this.

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    I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?