Most of you have heard about Bluetooth and more than likely have had the opportunity to use it. But what about Wibree, yes Wibree. This is a new technology that was introduced by NOKIA last year in October. It is a radio based technology that works like Bluetooth.
Many tech pundits have argued out the need for Wibree, or if Wibree would even survive the market looking at the fact that there are many of such radio technologies on the market including Zigbee.
Why Wibree
Before we look at the advantages that Wibree brings let us first take a close look at Wibree.
Wibree was designed as a compliment technology and not a competitor to Bluetooth. What that means is that it has been designed to integrate with Bluetooth and hence a single chip can be used for both Bluetooth and Wibree without the need for separate chips installed in a device to be able to use either. Wibree also comes alone on other kinds of chips. Some new phones specifically, NOKIA have this technology built into them. The symbol above is the registered trademark of Wibree and hence any phone you see with this symbol has Wibree incorporated into it.
The Main Advantages
1. The most important reason for the development of Wibree is its very low power consumption. Most of you who have used a Bluetooth devices would have noticed that it drains a lot of power. Now this can be very disadvantageous in that for small devices that make use of Bluetooth that run on batteries or any other such power it requires that battery be changed or charged very often. For devices whose batteries cannot be changed, the cost of using the device becomes a problem.
With Wibree this problem can be greatly overcome since Wibree uses only about a tenth(1/10th) the power consumed by Bluetooth [the real power consumption by Wibree has not yet been released by NOKIA]. What that means is that for small devices batteries do not need to be changed as often it would have with Bluetooth.
It also improves the wide range of devices that can now run on radio technology. Small button celled power devices like watches that would otherwise be very difficult to run on Bluetooth if not inoperable, can now be used with Wibree with just about the same features Bluetooth offers.
2. Another key factor is size. Wibree chips are much smaller than Bluetooth and so for devices where size is of prime importance Wibree would make a better substitute for Bluetooth.
The Main Disadvantages
Wibree may be a more power efficient technology and have smaller chip sizes than Bluetooth chips but it has its own draw backs. When it comes to speed of transmission Wibree is relatively slow compared to Bluetooth. While Bluetooth transmits at a speed of 3 Megabits per second(3Mbs), Wibree can only manage 1megabit per second(1Mbs). A really big draw back which makes it difficult to see how Wibree can compete with Bluetooth in devices where bandwidth is of prime importance.
Devices that can incorporate Wibree technology
1. Watches
2. Wireless keyboards
3. Wireless mice
4. Electronic toys
5. Sports sensors
6. Cell Phones
7. Medical devices, possibly implanted
Who shall it be?
It is very difficult to tell which technology shall become the most dominant in the next decade. One thing is clear though Wibree would have to do a lot of work to become a household name as Bluetooth has become.
With the issue of power consumption which is one of the main reasons why Wibree was developed manufacturers of Bluetooth are working on reducing the amount of power consumed by Bluetooth usage. If they do succeed, well one would wonder where that would leave Wibree.
I guess time would tell.