Nokia Research has officially announced Wibree, a short range wireless standard that focuses on using very little power. Since Bluetooth performs this function today, Nokia has been careful to note that Wibree can compliment Bluetooth and is not meant as a replacement. Wibree has transfer speeds of up to 1 Mbps at up to 10m distance.
Nokia is developing Wibree will a collection of other companies and expects a commercial specification to be completed during the second quarter of 2007.
Wibree is the first open technology offering connectivity between mobile devices or Personal Computers, and small, button cell battery power devices such as watches, wireless keyboards, toys and sports sensors.
Wibree will be implemented in either a stand-alone or Bluetooth-Wibree dual-mode chipset. Small devices such as watches will be stand-alone while more complicated devices like mobile phones will have the dual-mode chips.