Apple’s iBeacon has been getting a lot of buzz. Major League Baseball is already outfitting their stadiums with iBeacon. Macy’s is testing it in their Manhattan store, and other retailers are looking to deploy iBeacon as well. iBeacon presents many exciting opportunities for mobile and not just in the retailer sector.
iBeacon is based on a low power transmitter (Bluetooth Low Energy) that allows for push notification based on proximity. The common example is retail–a customer enters a store and their mobile device alerts them to a sale or provides further discounts based on their proximity to store zones or merchandise. Unlike GEO fencing, multiple beacons can be used to keep track of where a customer is in a store, their path through it, and how long they linger.
Knowing a customer’s location and movements allows for push information to their mobile device based on proximity and opens a lot of interesting potential. Imagine being able to place a beacon at a coffee shop that pushes a free issue of a paper or magazine, or even a book. A beacon could send out a church bulletin, playbill at a theater, or current transportation schedules at a bus stop or train station with the option to buy tickets.
In a work environment, beacons could be used on the plant floor and distribution center to highlight, push information, or prompt for collection. Beacons might be used to prompt employee surveys after meetings, notices to conference participants, ask for feedback after an event, or send up-to-date information about the company’s locations. They might even be used to create an interactive game used to on-board new employees.
Information being available based on location could be powerful use of iBeacon. Coupled with other data such as work calendar invites previously unthought of uses as time and location could be used together to present employees with insights or prompts.
Beacon technology is available on iOS and Android. The beacons themselves can run on anything that has BLE (any iOS 7 device can be an iBeacon). A number of companies are now bringing stand-alone beacons that are small set and forget type devices to market.
