BLE Deployment Expands by 6.5 Billion Devices per Year
BLE Connectivity Opens Up New Application Areas
13 Billion Bluetooth Devices in Use
Bluetooth is a globally established wireless technology – as shown by the numbers of devices in use. In data published jointly with ABI Research, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), whose members include Apple, Microsoft and Intel, and who drive the specifications as well as the further and new developments of the wireless technology, assumes that around 13 billion Bluetooth-enabled devices – from smartphones to IoT trackers – were in use in 2021.
By 2025, the expected volume of Bluetooth-enabled devices shipped annually will reach 6.5 billion, including more than 1.2 billion connected devices for IoT applications and about 2.2 billion smartphones, tablets and PCs.
35 percent of these will be BLE-enabled devices. It is expected that by 2024, all devices will be 100 percent dual-mode capable, supporting Bluetooth Classic and Bluetooth LE. The two technologies – Classic and LE – differ in the number and bandwidth of channels used and the network topologies supported.
Demand for BLE Solutions on the Rise
From consumer electronics to proximity marketing, to healthcare applications or industrial applications – these are the possible uses of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and the demand for BLE solutions on the market is growing. Users are taking advantage of the power-saving communication technology, which is IoT-capable and has been an integral part of all current smartphone models for years – and can therefore be used and accessed on a large scale.
BLE is the low-power variant of Bluetooth wireless technology and has been part of the specification since Bluetooth version 4.0. BLE-enabled devices transmit at a maximum data rate of one megabit per second, license-free, via an Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) frequency band with 40 channels in the 2.402 to 2.483 gigahertz frequency range.
The Use of BLE in Building Automation
Building automation is the automated, centralized control of a building's essential systems, including heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), lighting, and security. Bluetooth enables building automation solutions that leverage energy savings, reduce operating costs, and optimize the lifecycle of a building's core systems – for example, in hospitals.