Bluetooth in general is (and has been) broken forever.
Look at the comments on Google rewriting their Android Bluetooth stack for the fourth time.
> I know the guy that heads up the team that did this work -- he and I spent 2+ years fighting Broadcom's old, god-awful bluetooth code. Our whole team used to play what-if games about replacing the thing while massive code dumps came in from vendors, making the task ever larger.
> I had to write a service on the RPI and the only way to reliably connect was to restart bluetooth before every attempt.
Apple has finally gotten fed up enough to roll their own Bluetooth/WiFi hardware implementation, which is a huge undertaking.
It is said to start shipping this spring.
> Apple is switching over to a new Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chip that it designed in-house starting in 2025, reports Bloomberg. The combined Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chip will replace components from Broadcom
> "Apple has finally gotten fed up enough to roll their own Bluetooth/WiFi hardware implementation, which is a huge undertaking."
This has more to do with do with Apple wishing to pay less for WiFi/Bluetooth chips than wanting to fix bugs. They've gradually been replacing more and more silicon with their own designs for years, and tomorrow we'll likely see the next step: the debut of Apple's 5G radio chip.
Personally I have no issues at all with Bluetooth on my iPhone 13. It seems rock solid to me and never disconnects unexpectedly. (I do have some long-standing, annoying but relatively minor, issues with Bluetooth audio on macOS though).
The 2025 iPhone SE is said to be the first shipping device for both the new Bluetooth/WiFi chip and the 5G modem.
Cost is certainly a factor, but it doesn't take a lot of searching to find people designing and building devices saying that the existing third party hardware and firmware implementations for Bluetooth are problematic.
I don't think the Android/Pixel guys were daydreaming about ditching Broadcom for no reason.
I seem to remember discussions the Google Glass people posted here about their own issues with keeping a stable Bluetooth connection with the available third party Bluetooth chipsets.
Look at the comments on Google rewriting their Android Bluetooth stack for the fourth time.
> I know the guy that heads up the team that did this work -- he and I spent 2+ years fighting Broadcom's old, god-awful bluetooth code. Our whole team used to play what-if games about replacing the thing while massive code dumps came in from vendors, making the task ever larger.
> I had to write a service on the RPI and the only way to reliably connect was to restart bluetooth before every attempt.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26647981
Apple has finally gotten fed up enough to roll their own Bluetooth/WiFi hardware implementation, which is a huge undertaking.
It is said to start shipping this spring.
> Apple is switching over to a new Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chip that it designed in-house starting in 2025, reports Bloomberg. The combined Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chip will replace components from Broadcom
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/12/12/apple-custom-bluetooth-...