UWB technology 2023 overview
A brief snapshot of UWB device adoption across industries
Apple has started earlier in 2019 to adopt UWB technology in its iPhone, and gradually has extended its adoption into the Apple watch, Airpods, HomePod products, arriving in 2023 with the second generation of its UWB chipset.
Among Android devices, Samsung and Google are following despite Android (AOSP) has started to support UWB and BT only from Android 13. From 2024-2025 it is expected that the other major Android smartphone OEMs will join the UWB adoption, also thanks to a better ecosystem interoperability and certification assured by FiRa Consortium.
Between 2024 and 2026 UWB adoption among Android smartphone OEMs is estimated to accelerate especially in North America, East Asia (China, Japan and South Korea) and Europe. By 2030, it is likely that UWB technology will become mature with a coverage in the smartphone market between 60% and 70%.
The automotive industry has started to adopt UWB technology in 2018 with a keyless entry systems solution based on the previous standard (802.15.4a in 2018-2019) and between 2019 and 2024 with the UWB LRP solution provided by Microchip/3DB Access and Renesas/3DB Access. Thanks to the new 802.15.4z standard, FiRa Consortium program interoperability and the CCC digital car key 2.0 the adoption of UWB across different types of smartphone models could be enabled. However, due to the higher adoption cost (UWB transceivers from 2 to 7 with depending by the layout scheme chosen by each Car OEM) especially on antenna design and components shortage during and after Covid-19 pandemic, it is expected that a larger roll-out will occur after 2025 when chipset foundries are planning to be ready with more output production capacity for mature and specialized nodes.
Among smart home devices, smart speakers represent the majority in terms of the number of devices that have embedded UWB technology up to now. For smart door lock the digital key wallet and interoperability ecosystem is crucial for a larger deployment.
Last but not least, the UWB use cases for secure bubble payment transactions are strictly dependent on the adoption by the payment systems industry, for this reason is it likely that a larger diffusion will come in the late ‘20s. However, the first POS sold by VeriFone with UWB integrated is a step forward for testing the technology.
Here below there is an exhaustive list of the devices which have embedded UWB technology for both location awareness, tracking, human presence detection radar (HDP) and for short range data streaming.
Products with embedded UWB (*updated on November 2023):
Smartphone
Apple: iPhone 11 series (2019), iPhone 12 series (2020), iPhone 13 series (2021), iPhone 14 series (2022), iPhone 15 series (2023)
Android: Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra (2020), Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 (2020), Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra & Plus (2021), Samsung Galaxy Fold 3 (2021), Xiaomi Mix 4 (2021), Google Pixel 6 Pro (2021), Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra & Plus (2022), Samsung Galaxy Fold 4 (2022), Google Pixel 7 Pro (2022), Sharp Aquos R8 Pro & Aquos R8 (2023 *for Japan market only), Solana labs “Saga” crypto ready smartphone (2023), Google Pixel 8 Pro, Google Pixel Fold (2023), NIO phone (2023), Meizu 20 Infinity (2023).
Smartwatch
Apple: Apple watch 6 (2020), Apple watch 7 (2021), Apple watch 8 (2022), Apple watch Ultra (2022), Apple watch 9 (2023), Apple watch Ultra 2 (2023)
Other: Platonum watch (announced 2023, *UWB for short range data streaming)
Tablet
Android: Google Pixel tablet (2023 *only for US, UK, AU, CA, DK, FR, DE, JP, NL, NO, SE)
Laptop
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano, X1 Yoga and the X1 Carbon (2021, *UWB radar for HPD)
Smart home
Apple: Home Pod Mini (2020), HomePod 2 gen (2023),
Other: Xiaomi TV Master 77" OLED (2021), Xiaomi sound smart speaker (2021), Plume Design router mesh Wi-Fi & UWB SuperPod (2022), Zigbang SHP-R80 UWB digital key smart door lock (2023), Bang & Olufsen Beolab 8 smart speaker (2023), Bang & Olufsen Beosound A5 portable smart speaker, Sonus Faber duetto speaker wireless (2023, *UWB for short range data streaming)
Accessories
Apple: Airtag (2021), Apple AirPods Pro 2 Gen (2022), Apple AirPods Pro 2 Gen (2022, USB-C version from 2023)
Other: Samsung Galaxy smart tag plus (2021), Tuya tracker BT+UWB (2022), Samsung Galaxy smart tag 2 (2023)
Other devices
POS: VeriFone POS UX700 with UWB (2023)
Residential Care homes monitoring: EchoCare Technologies Remote Home Care monitoring system (2023)
Hotel room presence: Tuya UWB tag + IR sensor (2023)
Automotive digital car key
UWB LRP Car OEM and models: VW (Golf 8*, ID3, ID4, ID5, ID Buzz Polo*, Caddy* option 2019-2022), Skoda (Octavia, Enyaq 2020-2022), Seat (Leon 2020-2021), Mercedes Benz (S 500, 2020), JLR Group (Defender, Discovery, Range Rover 2018-2019; Jaguar E-Pace D180S AWD & i-Pace 2018), Cupra (Formentor, Born, 2021).
UWB with digital car key 2.0 (UWB HRP+ BLE) Car OEM and models: BMW Group (iX M60 and iX xDrive40 2022, series 7, X1 M35i, XM, i4, i7, Mini, 2023), Nio (ET7, ET5, 2022), Hyundai (Genesis V60, 2022, Sonata & Elantra 2023), Kia (EV9 2024~), GM (Hummer EV, 2023), BYD (Denza D9, 2023), Lexus (NX 2022), VW (2024~), Volvo (EX30 2023), JLR Group (Range Rover 2022-2023), Ford (Tourneo custom, 2023), Mercedes Benz (E Class, 2023) among others.