Although Apple only released the specification for BLE devices to broadcast iBeacon signals at the end of 2013, they'd been cleverly putting Bluetooth 4.0 hardware into devices since 2011, which means that even some older devices worked immediately with iBeacon with the release of iOS 7.
The following table lists some of the iBeacon-compatible iOS devices:
|
Device family |
Model |
Release date |
|---|---|---|
|
iPhone |
iPhone 4s |
October 14, 2011 |
|
iPhone 5 |
September 21, 2012 | |
|
iPhone 5s |
September 20, 2013 | |
|
iPhone 5c |
September 20, 2013 | |
|
iPad |
iPad Mini (first generation) |
November 2, 2012 |
|
iPad Mini (second generation) |
June 30, 2014 | |
|
iPad (third generation) |
March 16, 2012 | |
|
iPad (fourth generation) |
November 2, 2012 | |
|
iPad Air |
November 1, 2013 | |
|
iPod Touch |
iPod Touch (fifth generation) |
October 11, 2012 |
Tip
Although not covered in this book, it's worth noting that Bluetooth beacons also work with Android devices that have Bluetooth 4.0 and running Android 4.3 and later, which includes some of the most popular devices (Samsung Galaxy S3/S4/S5/S4 Mini, Samsung Galaxy Note 2/3, HTC One, Google/LG Nexus 7 (2013 version)/Nexus 4/Nexus 5, and HTC Butterfly).