Although it seems like Bluetooth’s wireless technology has been around forever, if it grew legs and walked into a bar, it still wouldn’t be old enough to buy a drink.

But as it celebrates its 20th year, Bluetooth’s global impact makes it seem mature beyond its years. And that impact is set to sweep rapidly across a much wider range of products and locales in coming years, according to a number of experts at Bluetooth World 2018 this week in Santa Clara, California.

A recently released market update from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group forecasts that nearly 4 billion Bluetooth-enabled devices will ship in 2018 alone. Virtually every smartphone, tablet and laptop shipped this year will include Bluetooth.

That’s significant coverage for a wireless standard that didn’t even make its debut in mobile phones until the introduction of the Ericsson T36 in 2000. And although the wireless technology has become a de facto standard across the consumer device landscape, Bluetooth’s major influence is also rapidly extending to shopping malls, airports, manufacturing plants, healthcare and smart building infrastructure.

“This is really an indication of the market’s willingness to use Bluetooth well beyond what you may have known from a consumer perspective,” Chuck Sabin, senior director of business strategy and planning for the Bluetooth SIG, said during a presentation Tuesday at Bluetooth World. “We’ve seen significant growth in the use of Bluetooth.”

Mesh networks provide boost

One of the key drivers for Bluetooth beyond consumer applications is smart buildings. When Bluetooth launched mesh networking last year, it provided a significant boost to building automation systems and this has emerged as a significant driver for energy savings, sensor-based occupancy mapping and security systems.

The advent of light-emitting diode or LED platforms has paved the way for Bluetooth mesh connectivity to drive a multitude of smart building systems. “Connected lighting has emerged as the key use case,” Sabin said. “What we’re hearing in the market is that the lighting specification for Bluetooth mesh is one of the most comprehensive solutions available today.”

In addition to mesh networking, the Bluetooth SIG also introduced enhancements that began making their way through the device supply chain in 2017. Bluetooth 5 was crafted to increase range, speed and broadcast message capacity while giving developers greater flexibility in system design.

“It’s given the developer more capability,” Ken Kolderup, vice president of marketing for Bluetooth SIG, said during an exclusive interview with SiliconANGLE. “It’s really upped our game in the whole location services area.”

Location services are also emerging as a major growth segment for Bluetooth. The new specification added an option to increase beacon-generated message data, information from small low-energy Bluetooth-connected transmitters, by a factor of eight times over the previous version.

Beacons guide shoppers

One of the more impressive use cases for location services can be found in Minnesota’s Mall of America, a massive complex of more than 500 stores spread across nearly5 million square feet. The mall’s information technology department wanted to enhance the shopping experience by creating a smartphone app that would help guide visitors.

The initial approach was to install a dedicated WiFi network, but the plan backfired when the multitude of device standards made connectivity difficult. “Unfortunately, we didn’t take into account the devices themselves,” said Janette Smrcka, information technology director for Mall of America.

The ultimate solution was to install 700 Bluetooth-connected beacons throughout the mall, which now allows app users to see where they are in the mammoth complex and provide context for what’s available nearby. Smrcka’s department also plans to implement a wayfinding network in the huge parking garage, to help drivers with stall-by-stall availability.

Automakers battle big tech firms

The quest for capturing Bluetooth-driven consumer use through smartphone-driven apps has also evolved into a competition between auto manufacturers and major technology powerhouses.

Five years ago, Ford Motor Co. open-sourced its AppLink software and formed a coalition with other car-makers to implement SmartDeviceLink, a connection between in-vehicle entertainment systems and smartphone applications. Ford’s intent was to address what it saw as a major competitive threat, similar software being introduced by smartphone makers themselves.

“These guys are not being coy about what they want to do,” Scott Burnell, global lead for business development at Ford, during a discussion at Tuesday’s Bluetooth event. “We don’t want someone making a decision on a $60,000 car based on a $600 phone. If we as an industry don’t work together on this, we’re going to be shut out of our own vehicles.”

In fact, Google has introduced a car app for its users called Android Auto and Apple Inc. has rolled out CarPlay, its version of a hands-free iPhone interface for vehicles. Meanwhile, Ford is pulling out the stops, adding a plug-in device earlier this year for owners of older cars to enable connected driving.

It’s an example of how Bluetooth occasionally sits at the center of a major technology battle, one that involves the world’s largest automakers and the globe’s biggest technology firms. But the Bluetooth SIG has no interest in taking sides.

“They have to give it the old college try,” Kolderup said in response to a question about Ford’s SmartDeviceLink. “But the market will decide.”

Security still a question

If there is a potential cloud on the Bluetooth horizon, it’s security. A year ago, Armis Security published documentation outlining various vulnerabilities which affected Bluetooth implementations in iOS, Android, Windows and Linux.

Called BlueBorne, the flaws have been addressed by a number of product manufacturers, which have issued patches and software updates. Yet, there are still an estimated 2 billion devices still open to attack.

In July, researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute disclosed a potentially serious Bluetooth vulnerability that could result in the leak of private data from Apple or Google-based smartphones. Apple and Google have issued fixes, and the Bluetooth SIG has adjusted its specification to address the problem as well, according to Kolderup. “Our brand is not only being simple to use, but also how secure we are with our connections,” he said.

Two years ago, the British Broadcasting Corporation spearheaded an initiative which distributed a pocket-sized codable, Bluetooth-enabled computer to every child in the seventh year of schooling across the United Kingdom. The device, called the micro:bit, was distributed with the goal of inspiring the next generation of developers to enhance skills and explore new technologies

“In 10 years, they’re going to be the developers using Bluetooth to design the future,” said Zach Shelby, vice president of developers at Arm.

Photo: Mark Albertson/SiliconANGLE