The latest version of the wireless data transmission standard Bluetooth – version 4.0 – has been approved by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group and will now offer a broadcast facility that will allow marketers to contact multiple consumers as they pass Bluetooth enabled posters and storefront displays.

Anders Edlund, Marketing Director for the Bluetooth SIG, tells m-retailing.net that: “With v4.0 and Bluetooth low energy technology there is a new function, broadcast, that will make it easier with mobile marketing since all Bluetooth users in the vicinity can be addressed simultaneously and without the need to first discover devices.”

This new function, believes Edlund, will potentially make reception of interesting information a lot easier for the consumers whether they are wanting to receive info about flights in an airport or viewing short videos in a museum. It will also be a boon to Bluetooth based marketing solutions such as Hypertag, which uses Bluetooth to initiate contact with consumers.

Bluetooth 4.0 will also see an extension to the useful range of the technology. The majority of Bluetooth devices on the market today include the basic 30 foot, or 10 meter, range of the Classic Bluetooth radio, but there is no limit imposed by the Specification. With Bluetooth v4.0, manufacturers may choose to optimize range to 200 feet and beyond, particularly for in-home sensor applications where longer range is a necessity.

“The low energy feature of Bluetooth v4.0 is truly groundbreaking,” said Nick Jones, senior wireless analyst, Gartner. “At Gartner, we identified it as the top mobile technology to watch for in 2010 primarily because of its ability to smash open the barriers to new markets for Bluetooth technology and consumer electronics device manufacturers. We’re excited to see this one hit the market.”

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