Bluetooth 4.0 Gets Rebranded Bluetooth Smart Ready

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has decided to rebrand its new Bluetooth 4.0 standard, which has recently launched on the iPhone 4S and has been available on the latest Mac Mini and MacBook Air. The new naming scheme adds the categories Bluetooth Smart and Bluetooth Smart Ready to help clarify device compatibilities, although it now seems only more confusing.

Bluetooth Smart devices pertain mainly to sensor-type devices like heart-rate monitors that run on a button-cell battery and were designed for limited and specific tasks. And hence, due to their lower power consumption, they cannot connect to traditional Bluetooth labeled devices, but only to Bluetooth Smart Ready devices.

The iPhone 4S, Mac Mini, and MacBook Air are considered Bluetooth Smart Ready devices, which can also include Bluetooth 4.0 equipped tablets, PCs, and TVs. These Bluetooth Smart Ready devices can connect to traditional Bluetooth devices as well as Bluetooth Smart devices.

Therefore, you may start noticing that future device packaging will sport one of three new Bluetooth logos, including the traditional Bluetooth, Bluetooth Smart, and Bluetooth Smart Ready.

"Once consumers have a Bluetooth Smart Ready device, like the new iPhone 4S, they can continue connecting to existing Bluetooth devices and are also ready to experience the new world of Bluetooth Smart peripheral devices that will carry the Bluetooth Smart logo," said Bluetooth SIG CMO Suke Jawanda.

[via Apple Insider]