Windows 10 was announced earlier this week – it is an exciting move for Microsoft that’s been years in the making, and it will be interesting to see how developers gravitate towards a common operating system (OS) and development platform that transcends phones, tablets and PCs. Two things are certain, with Windows 10, Microsoft made building with Bluetooth® technology easier for developers and the magic it can deliver even more accessible for consumers.

Windows 10 builds on the Bluetooth Smart Ready support Windows 8 first delivered. Since 2011, when Apple introduced native Bluetooth Smart support into the iPhone 4s, we have seen all the operating systems jump on board giving developers an easy, flexible way to build with Bluetooth Smart. By natively supporting Bluetooth Smart in Windows 10, Microsoft is giving the entire ecosystem one SDK for development. All the OEM needs to do is include the hardware (dual mode Bluetooth BR/EDR + LE radio). It’s like peanut butter and jelly…you take Windows 10 software and the OEM’s hardware and it turns the phone, tablet or PC into a powerful Bluetooth Smart Ready hub—ready to connect with billions of Bluetooth and Bluetooth Smart peripherals.

The single OS approach is unique and a point of differentiation compared to Google and Apple. In those ecosystems, developers write to different SDKs for each mobile and/or Mac/Chromebook product. In Windows 10, the promise is for only one SDK that developers write to in order to reach phones, tablets and PCs. Ideally, this single Bluetooth Smart Ready support will eventually extend to the Xbox as well. That would allow millions of consumers to experience the magic of Bluetooth by connecting all their Bluetooth Smart things—locks, lights, appliances, wearables—to their TVs via the Xbox. Apple recently enabled this functionality in Apple TV and Android is rolling it out via Android L that targets set-top-boxes and Smart TVs.

What’s in it for the consumer? Native Bluetooth Smart support means the things they want to connect to a smart phone, tablet, or PC—their new August smart lock, Armour39 chest strap, 94fiftybasketball, Coolest cooler, or Samsung light bulbs, etc.—will just work…like magic. Bluetooth makes the Internet of Things (IoT) devices coming to market today just work with the hub devices consumers already own.

While a good magician never reveals his secrets, the trick with Bluetooth is really quite simple. The24,000 Bluetooth SIG members work very hard to ensure the interoperability of the technology. You can see this in the diverse array of smart home products coming to market from an equally diverse group of OEMs, hobbyists, developers, and entrepreneurs. Consumers don’t need to buy expensive and complex hubs that have five different radios built in to accommodate all the different products they want to use to automate their home, they just need to look for the Bluetooth Smart logo.

It really is simple, if you want your customers—the ones you have and want to have—to experience the magic of connecting to billions of products and devices, then you want to build with Bluetooth Smart.

(Credit: Suke Jawanda)