Wibree: no. Bluetooth 3.0: yes.

I've waited a day to let the Wibree hoopla die down (but it hasn't). Right off the bat, the announcement is very exciting. In case you missed it, Nokia developed a new radio technology called Wibree that's essentially the same as Bluetooth from a functionality standpoint, but reduces the power consumption by a large factor. Expected throughput is a respectable 1 Mbps with the same range as today's current Bluetooth devices, which is roughly 10 meters.

Having said that, I sincerely hope that we don't end up with Wibree-enabled devices. It's not that I don't want the technology, but I don't want to see consumers get confused with yet another name. Let's think about that just from a wireless perspective right now; you've got all these and more in the same general category:

WiFi, 802.11a/b/g, draft 802.11n, UWB, Centrino, Bluetooth, RF, Wireless USB, WLAN, PAN, ZigBee, RFID and IrDA

Part of the slow adoption of any technology is a lack of understanding it. A descriptive name goes a long way, while the name of a standard is less helpful to mainstream consumers. Folks in the general populace I know are just starting to talk about "their new phone with this cool Bluetooth feature", so let's not slow the momentum. No offense Nokia, but I'd love to see the Wibree name and technology get merged into the Bluetooth spec in the long run.

Comments

[wibree technology]

you are almost right, but the addition of Wibree will probably lower the costs of such devices in a way that will benefit us all.