iPhone's Bluetooth - What? Why? How?

Question

I googled a lot and read many documents. But I can't understand the concept behind iPhone's Bluetooth technology.

In my knowledge, Bluetooth was used for:

• Transferring files between devices
• Wireless communication for things like video gaming and earphones

Recently I tried to copy some of the photos from my old Android mobile to my iPhone 4S via Bluetooth. It's quite simple in my older phones to connect with other devices by Bluetooth for file sharing. But I can't pair other devices (even another iPhone :( ) with my iPhone 4S.

• Copying songs/videos may affect their iTunes as well as their business. But what about images? Why is the usage of Bluetooth restricted and what's the use of it being able to transfer images?

• Is there any other way to use iPhone's Bluetooth to transfer files? Maybe using an app? But I don't want to jailbreak my device.

I'm confused about the restrictions and Apple's thinking.

Answer 1

As mentioned in the Apple Discussion Forums, like this post for example, the iPhone does not have (and never has had) support for file transfers over Bluetooth.

Here are the Bluetooth profiles supported by iOS listing the types of operations possible.

Answer 2

The Bluetooth protocol supports a large number of profiles, more than just file transfers between devices and pairing of wireless headphones. Certain Bluetooth stacks will implement different profiles — the protocol is capable of say, supporting wireless RS232 serial connections, but that doesn't mean every Bluetooth device has to support that feature. It wouldn't make sense for most to do so. iOS just supports some features and not others — and file transfers happens to belong the latter. That's up to the manufacturer and their consideration of what profiles they think will be relevant and worth supporting.