2015/6/24 23:56:35
Source: Web
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Apple will be playing a larger role in the development of
Bluetooth as the company pushes into wearable technology, home automation, and
more.
The Bluetooth
Special Interest Group, which oversees the development of the wireless
communication standard, announced
Tuesday that Apple has become a “promoter member” of the group,
giving the company new power to guide Bluetooth’s development. Promoter members
are given a continual seat on the group’s board of directors, and are also the
only membership class that can vote on its corporate matters.
Apple has been an
associate board member of the group since 2011, and the company’s senior
wireless architect, Joakim Linde, currently serves as the board’s secretary. In
the past, Apple’s board membership was term limited. The current promoter
members—Ericsson, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Nokia, and Toshiba—voted
unanimously to have Apple join their ranks.
The company’s
upgraded membership makes sense given how important Bluetooth is to so many of
its products. The Apple Watch relies on Bluetooth to exchange information with
the iPhone it’s paired to, and many of the Continuity
features introduced to iOS and OS X last year use Bluetooth to
exchange information between Apple devices so users can transfer their work
back and forth.
Apple first introduced
Bluetooth support in Mac OS X at the 2002 Macworld Expo in
Tokyo, along with a $49 Bluetooth adapter that allowed users to begin testing
the wireless communication technology. Starting in 2003, users were able to
purchase new Macs with Bluetooth built in. Since then, Bluetooth use has
exploded, fueled by the popularity of mobile devices and wearable tech.
Those markets
represent one of the tech industry’s new frontiers going forward, and today’s
decision means that Apple will have a front seat to help guide the Bluetooth
standard going forward. Interestingly, Google isn’t currently one of the
interest group’s board members, even though it’s building technology like
Android Wear that also relies on Bluetooth.
(Credit: Web)