As expected, Bluetooth Special Interest Group Consortium (SIG) officially announced a new Bluetooth standard 5 with increased range and bandwidth for sending and receiving large amounts of data at greater distances. This is the first major update to the Bluetooth standard since 2009, when it was represented by Bluetooth 4.
The new standard Bluetooth 5 differs increased to four times the radius of action, doubling the data rate and increased by 800% capacity contactless radio transmission, which enables the transmission of more complex and intelligent information. Also Bluetooth 5 is characterized by low power consumption, allowing the device with a small battery pack can act as a Bluetooth-transmitter for a long time, which is especially important for the smart home systems.
Bluetooth 5, according to executive director of the Bluetooth SIG Mark Powell (Mark Powell), will contribute to the development of the internet of things (IoT). The first devices with Bluetooth 5 appear at the end of 2016 or in early 2017.
According to ABI Research analyst Patrick Connolly , which refers to the publication Gearburn, currently 8.2 billion devices worldwide are endowed with Bluetooth support and more than 30 thousand companies are using Bluetooth technology in their products.