Apple climbing to top of bluetooth tree

Apple and Nordic Semi will be joining the Bluetooth SIG Board of Directors thanks to their recent successes in the market.

By Alex West, Research Director, IMS Research June 24, 2011

There will be a couple of new faces at the next Bluetooth SIG board meeting, with Nordic Semi and Apple joining the Board of Directors.

I was particularly interested in the news about Apple. Historically it seems that they haven’t been the most helpful company in promoting the “full flavor” of Bluetooth. A2DP wasn’t featured until iOS 3 was released, and anybody who’s tried (and failed) to flick through their music collection with their Bluetooth headset would have been happy to hear of the inclusion of the Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) in the iOS 4.1. Now they are “on board” maybe things have changed.

When you start playing with some numbers it’s interesting to see how important a user of Bluetooth Apple really is. A back of the envelope calculation puts the number of Bluetooth enabled devices shipped in their FY10 (which runs to end of September) as over 80 million. However, factor in that the iPad sales, in calendar 4Q10, are going to be about the same as all previous sales combined, and with the iPhone grabbing market share hand-over-fist, this is going to be a lot bigger by the end of 2011!

Nokia and Samsung still dominate the handset market, so are still consuming more Bluetooth at the moment, but with the range of products from the iPhone and iPad, to the iPod touch and the Mac range it may only be three to four years before Apple are sitting on top of the tree!