Bluetooth Love-Hate

CNN featured an article with an interesting (and honest) perspective on Bluetooth: "Why Bluetooth remains an 'unusually painful' technology after two decades". The short story is: we love Bluetooth when it works and we hate it when it does not. Unfortunately still after 20 years we often have reasons to hate it.

And this is almost entirely due to bad implementations.

People tend to blame the overarching technology and the brand when a particular product does not work. While the issues are typically with the product itself. And yes, bad implementations have plagued Bluetooth since the very beginning.

It all probably started with Microsoft simply ignoring the existence of Bluetooth, until (if I remember correctly) Windows 7, when it finally offered native Bluetooth support. Before that Windows users were forced to use 3rd party Bluetooth drivers with varying quality. Android only recently has made a serious bet on Bluetooth, finally realizing this is one of the features most expected to work well.

Then there is the whole complicated story of Bluetooth peripherals. You would think bad implementations are a thing of the past, especially in premium products. Actually this is still not the case. I have experienced this (again!) recently after I received my long awaited Vissles LP85 keyboard I backed on Kickstarter. This keyboard was intended to replace my dying Logitech K811, which was great but simply fell apart after many years. And the prospect of having a mechanical keyboard was also very appealing. I could not be more happy when the Vissles arrived. It was beautiful, super low profile with tactile switches (and a number quirky extras like the programmable RGB light patterns).

Unfortunately the joy did not last long, as I soon realized the Bluetooth implementation in the Vissles was crap. Taking ages to connect, often failing to connect at all. Then frequently disconnecting and - last but not least - lasting only a couple of days on a charge (the Logitech K811 was lasting for months). My frustration grew to the point I ordered the new Logitech MX Mechanical Mini.

It has just arrived and I must say I'm happy and back in business. It is not as cute and as low profile as the Vissles, but the Bluetooth experience is totally different. Seamless. Invisible. The way it should be. Pairing was instant. It does not go to sleep (actually I believe it does but reconnects invisibly) and does not lose any character when waking up. I also have no reason to believe it would last on a charge shorter than the K811 did.

I don't know if Logitech develops their Bluetooth software in house or they buy it from a 3rd party, but this software is such a fundamental contributor to how the end product works and how the Logitech brand is perceived. It also does a great job strengthening the Bluetooth brand. On the other hand Vissles have a potentially great product which is completely ruined but the poor performing Bluetooth stack implementation. And it also contributes to the "hate" part of the overall relationship with Bluetooth.

This all sounds familiar to our own turf - Bluetooth mesh for commercial lighting. We have been doing all in our power to make that the greatest. At the same time we see many companies taking "shortcuts" by offering products with poor performing (or incomplete) Bluetooth mesh implementations. Cutting corners on performance and security. The market is clearly starting being aware of that. One example is the blog by Jarvis Lighting: Technology Roadmap - Network Lighting Controls: "There is currently a mix of quality systems and also garbage systems. Many systems run on "Bluetooth Mesh," but the system's software can vary broadly in capability and performance.".

The advice: go with proven solutions like Silvair. Or do your thorough due diligence to make sure you do not sacrifice your brand, as this is the most precious thing a respectable company has, and when damaged, will be very expensive to recover.