The Apple Watch, announced yesterday from Cupertino, was not the first smart watch launched this year, and certainly not the first wearable. We’ve seen a flood of smart watches introduced—the Moto 360, LG G Watch R, Samsung Gear S, and Intel’s Basis Peak, not to mention hints of products from Microsoft and Acer—and those are just the watches. If we start looking at the wearable market as a whole, there are fitness trackers, glasses, sleep trackers, sports bras, socks—it’s an extensive list. Xiaomi, the largest smartphone maker in China recently announced its own wearable (at a ridiculously low price point of $13 USD) that lasts a month between battery charges.

But why now? Smart watches have been touted as the next big thing at CES for the last 10 years. Why are these devices exiting the niche realm and becoming mainstream? It is because of Bluetooth Smart technology.

Even though Apple barely mentioned the connectivity its smart watch will use, rest assured, it is Bluetooth enabled—along with every other wearable device I mentioned in this article—and that is not by chance.

Over the course of the past year, with Bluetooth Smart in virtually every smartphone (including both iPhone’s announced yesterday) and tablet, the pace of innovation spiked off the charts. It takes a common language to allow these devices to speak to each another and open up the market potential, and Bluetooth is that language.

Bluetooth technology and the wireless industry have been transforming since 2010 to make this possible. Bluetooth adapted to offer an ultra-low power wireless solution as well as a software architecture to empower developers—namely Bluetooth Smart. Bluetooth Smart gives unprecedented flexibility while still delivering the massive interoperability consumers, and the industry, has come to expect from Bluetooth. Bluetooth Smart is inside most of the wireless innovation happening in the industry today and is the magic behind the connected boom we are experiencing. It’s quietly spawned multi-billion dollar industry sectors like beacons and wearables, just to name a few.

All of these devices on their own—fitness trackers, glasses, sensors, thermostats, beacons, and even all the watches—are simply connected products. In order to light up the Internet of Things (IoT), all of these things must work together with the phones and tablets their users already have in their hand. Niche, proprietary technologies simply won’t work and will keep the ecosystem closed off. However, everything works together with Bluetooth Smart as the common language connecting devices and applications.

As a developer wanting to connect to just a few things, you could use a niche wireless technology. If you want to connect to a few billion things—including the device your customer already owns—then Bluetooth should be your choice. Look around. From virtually every Apple, Windows and Android-powered product to the latest connected innovation in the retail, health and fitness and the emerging smart home space you will see Bluetooth Smart connecting it all.

If you’re a developer and want to be a part of this boom, start here.

(Credit: Suke Jawanda)