Is it possible to connect to external device via Bluetooth from iPhone. The target device is not an iPhone

Question

I want to develop a toy car, which I can use iPhone to control it. My toy car has a bluetooth interface. So I am wondering is it possible to connect to it from my iPhone. The toy car is not a MFi (made for iPhone/iPod/iPad) program.

My iPhone mode is iPhone 4S.

If not possible, is there any alternative way?

Answer 1

Without joining Apple's Made for iPhone (MFi) program, your choices are really WiFi or Bluetooth LE. WiFi is more power-hungry and, unless you're very careful in your chip selection, can be difficult to implement. Bluetooth LE is only supported by iPhone 4S and the new iPad (i.e. 3rd-gen); it's likely to be supported in future iOS devices, such as the new iPhone and much-rumoured 'mini' iPad.

Just Bluetooth 4.0 isn't enough, from my understanding, it needs to be Bluetooth 4.0 LE (the low-energy variant). Support for such devices is provided in the iOS 5.0 SDK and later with the CoreBluetooth framework. See Apple's documentation on the CoreBluetooth framework [free developer registration required].