Wibree uses less power than Bluetooth so what?

Stan Beer
Wednesday, 04 October 2006 08:14

Opinion and Analysis

As I sit here typing this article about Nokia's new Wibree specification on my wireless keyboard and using my wireless mouse, I'm increasingly getting a feeling of so what's the big deal?

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It's always good to hear of something that can do the same thing as something else for much less energy expended. Wibree uses one tenth the power of Bluetooth to perform essentially the same chore - connecting devices within 10 meters wirelessly.

However, I have changed the batteries in my wireless keyboard just once in the past year. My wireless mouse is a bit more power hungry but mainly because of the LED not the Bluetooth connection.

I don't use a Bluetooth headset or Bluetooth mobile phone car kit so I'm not sure about any issues concerning battery consumption there, but friends who have these things tell me that they don't have any major problems with batteries running out. As for the phones themselves, the Lithium Ion batteries are so powerful now that you can leave them on for days without a recharge.

So far, the only application that has been suggested for the low power Wibree has been to connect low power devices like digital wrist watches to the network - and do what?

There's no doubt that in time someone will come up with a way to leverage the capabilities of the new Wibree specification. However, right now it appears that a lot of people are scratching their heads and thinking that is a new technology without any serious applications.