Without a doubt, the Bluetooth low energy market has been growing, but without broad support from the Android community there was a gap. At Google I/O, the company announced what the industry has been waiting for—support for the Bluetooth v4.0 standard, which includes Bluetooth low energy, with Android API version 18.
More manufacturers are looking at Bluetooth low energy technology to attach their “appcessories” (an accessory device that uses apps to share information) to smartphones and tablets. In fact, ABI Research predicts that there will be nearly one billion Bluetooth appcessories in 2016.
Thanks to today’s announcement, any appcessory that is Bluetooth low energy capable will be able to support Android once the APIs are available – and the good news is that it should be a fairly fast upgrade process. We will be updating our SensorTag kit to include an Android app to help speed the development of new Bluetooth Smart appcessories. And all manufacturers using TI’s CC2541, CC2540 or CC2564 will be able to update their offerings and increase the number of smartphones and tablets they can “talk” to over Bluetooth low energy.
For further assistance, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has launched an enablement initiative, which includes a web portal with resources for the developer community. They will also offer a Bluetooth Applications Accelerator to speed time-to-market for new appcessories that you can pre-register for on the portal.
So what does Google’s support mean for the future of Bluetooth low energy? Quite frankly, the sky’s the limit now that manufacturers can deliver Bluetooth v4.0 devices for Android, iOS, Windows 8 and Blackberry operating systems.
I hope you’re excited for the new Android-based Bluetooth Smart devices on the horizon. We can’t wait to see the innovative appcessories and other Bluetooth low energy connected devices that the Android community will dream up. Cowboid, our Android mascot, is so excited he turned Bluetooth blue and is ready and waiting with his SensorTag!
What Android Bluetooth Smart appcessory would you create?