Bluetooth Market to Top 5 Billion Shipments by 2021 on Bluetooth 5 Enhancements

Ahead of the expected release of Bluetooth 5 next year, ABI Research forecast Monday that Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready devices will top 5 billion shipments by 2021, fueled by technical enhancements that open new opportunities, use cases and device types. Key IoT growth areas will include the smart home, smart lighting, beacons and wearables, said an ABI report. Bluetooth is becoming more attractive for low-power applications, said analyst Andrew Zignani. The technology still faces stiff competition from other standards, but mesh networking will enable new opportunities in the smart home, building automation, and emerging IoT markets, due to robustness, low latency, scalability, low power consumption and “strong security,” said Zignani. The imminent standardization of mesh networking will take device capabilities to a next level, said ABI. Bluetooth-enabled smart lights will be able to control lighting across an entire smart home or smart building from a single gateway or controlling device, such as a smartphone, it said. “This puts Bluetooth on a more even playing field with other mesh networking technologies, such as Z-Wave or 802.15.4-based ZigBee and Thread.” Beacons represent “an enormous opportunity” for Bluetooth through personal tracking tags, retail, and advertising, ABI said, with Bluetooth shipments of beacons projected to grow by a compound annual rate of 133 percent between now and 2021. Increased broadcast messaging capacity in Bluetooth 5 will help drive the markets, “as beacons will be able to provide much higher quality content and richer contextual information than ever before.” Apple’s removal of the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will help drive adoption of Bluetooth wireless headsets, headphones, and still emerging hearables, said the research firm. Mobile accessories are projected to account for 13 percent of Bluetooth device shipments in 2021, while Bluetooth will continue to be important in audio, said ABI. Upcoming speed and bandwidth enhancements with Bluetooth 5 will build on audio enhancements delivered by Qualcomm’s aptX HD and Sony’s LDAC for music streaming, it said.