The next generation of the Bluetooth communication standard, Bluetooth 5, will be formally announced next week. The new standard will offer double the range and four times the speed of the current one.
Executive director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, Mark Powell, revealed the news in a published email sent to UK health and monitoring company Blue Maestro. The Bluetooth SIG, which is backed by Apple, Intel, and other major technology companies, will officially make the announcement on June 16 in London.
The new standard is a significant revision of the current Bluetooth 4.2 standard. In addition to improved range and speed, the new protocol is said to offer wider support for smart home devices, as well as enhanced Internet of Things (IoT) functionality. The new standard will also feature better support for location-based services such as Apple’s iBeacon.
We should learn next week if existing devices can update to Bluetooth 5 via a firmware update, or if it will require new hardware. While Bluetooth 1, 2, and 3 were all not updateable via software, Bluetooth 4.0 devices could be upgraded to Bluetooth 4.1 via a software patch.
Apple added Bluetooth 4.2 support to the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and iPad Air 2 in October of last year.
