Bluetooth is lower power consuming than Wi-Fi, but has been limited by range and bandwidth, until now. Bluetooth 5 is expected to start arriving later this year and early in 2017 inside new devices.
Expect new smartphones, smartwatches, speakers, headphones, smart bulbs, connected cameras and more to sport the new Bluetooth 5 connection. There are currently over 30,000 companies working with the Bluetooth SIG so expect this to appear on a huge scale when it starts to arrive later this year.
This could also mean indoor location tracking, like that used by Apple in its Stores, could become wider spanning and more accurate than ever.
Expect to hear manufacturers announcing their devices which will pack Bluetooth 5 towards the end of 2016.