3
Introduction
Sinceitsinception,audiohasrepresentedthelargestsolutionareaforBluetooth®technology.
Initially,synonymouswithhands-freecallingandwirelessheadsets,Bluetoothaudio
technologyhascontinuouslyevolvedtosupporthigherqualityaudiousecases,most
notablywithinmobiletoheadphoneandspeakerstreaming,enabledbytheAdvancedAudio
DistributionProle(A2DP).Asaresult,Bluetoothaudiohasbecomewidelyadoptedin100
percentofsmartphones,tablets,andPCsandbillionsofwirelessheadsetsandspeakers.
BothusecaseshavetraditionallyleveragedBluetoothClassictechnology,alsoknownas
BluetoothBasicRate/EnhancedDataRate(BR/EDR).
Overthelastdecade,variousnewusecasesandrequirementsforaudiohaveemerged.
Thisincludestrue-wirelessstereo(TWS)earbuds,hearingaids,andnetworkedspeakers,
amongothers.However,BluetoothClassicAudiohasseverallimitations,includingaudio
quality,powerconsumption,aninabilitytosupportsimultaneousconnections,unidirectional
streaming,andissuesinhandoverbetweenaudioandvoiceapplications.Yet,bothastrength
andlimitationofBluetoothClassicAudioandA2DPisthatitisdesignedtobeapoint-to-
pointtechnology.
Tobetterservetheseusecases,variouscompanies
developedtheirownproprietaryextensionsto
BluetoothClassicAudiotechnology,bringing
synchronizationbetweenearbudstocreatenewdevice
categoriessuchasTWSearbuds andhearables,which
rstarrivedin2014.Sincethen,thesedevicespropelled
theBluetoothaudiomarkettonewheights,withthe
TWSearbudsandhearablemarketsaloneshippingover
200millionunitsin2021.
Inthehearingdevicespace,BluetoothClassicAudio’shighpowerconsumptionmeantthat
itwasanill-tsolutiontosize-andpower-constraineddevices,suchashearingaidsand
cochlearimplants,whicharetypicallywornforuptoninehoursaday.Asaresult,companies
suchasAppleandGoogledevelopedtheirownhearingaidsolutionsbasedontheBluetooth
LowEnergy(LE)radio,enablinghearingaiduserstostreammusicandphonecallsdirectly
totheirhearingaidwhileprovidingsucientbatterylifefordailyuse.Whilethearrivalof
thesesolutionshasbeenpositiveforconsumerearbudsandhearingdevices,thefactthat
theyaretiedtoproprietarytechnologiesandvendor-specicecosystemsmeanstheylack
interoperabilityandconsumerchoiceislimited.
In2014,thehearingaidindustryunderEHIMA(EuropeanHearingIndustryManufacturers
Association)joinedtheBluetoothSpecialInterestGroup(SIG)todevelopanewstandardfor
hearingaids.Theintentionwastoenablehearingdeviceuserstoreceivehigh-quality
TWS earbuds and hearables
shipped in 2021
Source: ABI Research
200
MILLION