The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is planning to release a new version of Bluetooth in mid-2009. As expected, Bluetooth 2.2 will deliver transfer rates at higher speeds than previous versions.
The idea of the new High Speed Bluetooth specification is to work with WLAN or USB for improved data rates, and will be known as Bluetooth 10x and Bluetooth 100x, respectively. For this to work, a mobile phone will need to be equipped with WLAN or UWB radio. Hence Bluetooth 10x will be used first, since many of the newer handsets already have WiFi capabilities built-in.
Unfortunately, we don’t know which of the existing devices will be upgradable to the new Bluetooth specification. The way I see it, smartphones should stand first in the line for any upgrades, although some of the modern WiFi-enabled feature phones could also see such an update. Naturally, we’ll get back to you as soon as we hear something new on the subject. Stay tuned…
[Via: CNET]