More than half of of Bluetooth Location Services implementations around the world support ‘retail and services’ use cases, according to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG).

The ‘retail and services’ vertical accounts for 66 per cent of Bluetooth Location Services implementations, states the 2021 Bluetooth Market Update released by Bluetooth SIG on March 30, 2021. It attributes the figure to ABI Research.

This dwarves the proportion of Bluetooth Location Services implementations in warehouse and logistics (9 per cent), office (9 per cent) and healthcare (7 per cent) settings, according to the Bluetooth SIG document.

Indoor navigation is the most common use case reported by Bluetooth SIG. Nearly 80 per cent of all Bluetooth Location Services implementations include indoor navigation, it reports.

Point of interest information accounted for 67 per cent of Bluetooth Location Services use cases.

Personnel and equipment tracking accounted for 21 per cent and 17 per cent of Bluetooth Location Services use cases respectively.

Bluetooth tracking tags accounted for the “vast majority” of Bluetooth Location Services device shipments globally, according to Bluetooth SIG. Apple recently announced a Bluetooth-enabled tracking tag, the AirTag, for the consumer market.

Annual Bluetooth Location Services device shipments fell globally in 2020, but Bluetooth SIG predicts shipments rebounding. It sees Bluetooth direction finding increasing usage of Bluetooth for indoor positioning.

It also noted that device networks are the fastest-growing Bluetooth solution area. “Smart home and commercial lighting use cases are seeing exceptional growth,” it stated.