The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) announced its intent to work with the developers of the wireless technology commonly known as ultra-wideband (UWB) to combine strengths of both technologies. This decision will allow Bluetooth technology to extend its long-term roadmap to meet the high speed demands of synchronizing and transferring large amounts of data as well as enabling high quality video applications for portable devices. According to the joint announcement, UWB will benefit from Bluetooth technology’s manifested maturity, qualification program, brand equity and comprehensive application layer. ABI Research senior analyst Dan Benjamin comments: “The potential merger of Bluetooth and UWB is something that has been openly speculated about for some time. UWB could replace the existing air interface used by Bluetooth for the purpose of drastically increasing the total bandwidth available for Bluetooth devices. At the same time, the Bluetooth profiles and network stacks could easily be used to limit the amount of development needed for new devices, since Bluetooth and UWB target the same market for short range cable replacement. The downside is that backwards compatibility will be limited. Bluetooth implementing UWB could serve to limit interest in Wireless USB, which also uses UWB as an air interface and targets a similar market, but is still very much unsettled with regard to software and authentication.”