With an i before beacon, it becomes an i-series Apple technology- iBeacon, which runs on the primary concept of receiving signal from the physical world and react accordingly. Though Beacons have been creating the buzz since 2003, they have recently gained that visibility with the successful implementation of iBeacons in many multinational retail stores and other venues. Apple Inc. has nailed it by identifying and executing a new way of connecting and interacting with the masses around.
After all, the future of mobile app development seems to be illuminating the world with some incredibly innovative ways of connecting to each other at homes (IoT) and to things, creating virtually real effects (AR and VR), bringing a voice assistant for every separate user (Siri, Google Voice) and many more. We need to delve a little deeper to understand what is iBeacon technology and its potential to help companies in a more advanced manner.
Let’s go one by one.
iBeacon is an advanced technology by Apple, which allows customers to be notified about the hyper-contextual content if they are connected to a beacon through Bluetooth technology. The technology is all about sending and distributing messages related to approximate location determination via iBeacon-enabled transmitters. Along with smartphones (Android and iPhone apps), it works for multiple devices including laptops, desktops, tablets, Apple TV small PCBs.
Mostly used in retail stores currently, if a customer has a beacon-compatible mobile app, they will be sent targeted notifications of the various offers around (where they are moving in a shopping mall, a roadside market, a food court or any other retail store) regarding the valuable offers, coupons, what’s new in the store, any contests running around and so on. Till now, beacon has shown great benefits in the retail industry, but will soon enter the healthcare, gaming and other sectors.
Beacon works on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, which is a wireless network area that transmits data and content over short distances. What makes BLE different from regular Bluetooth is the low power/energy consumption and cost-effectiveness.
As of now, retail industry across the globe is making the most out of iBeacons. Some of the high brand stores like Macy, Lord & Taylor have employed them in their stores. While retail is one of the many industries that’s benefited from this BLE technology, many hotel groups to replace the keys with beacons. Similarly, some of the airline companies are running pilot programs to improve customer connections at airports. Also, stadiums are implementing to connect with fans in stadiums and allot VIP passes or send notifications about seat upgrades as and when required.
Beacon apps are soon going to enter the B2B market in corporate events and trade shows to send information about the relevant booths a business group might be seeking.
Totally a location-based mobile customer communication, Apple draws on the beacon technology for the comfort of their consumers so that they get alerts whenever they enter or leave a specific location, via mobile apps (or web apps) that work on Apple devices. Apple was the first to introduce it in 2013- iBeacon standards around which apps can be built and deployed on App store.
Inspired by the technology and its benefits for consumers, others leading mobile giant Google has recently hit its own beacon standard with the name Eddystone.
They are certainly the game changers in mobile app development.
Moving with a fast pace and embracing the latest technology trends, we, at Konstant, have also developed few iBeacon apps for our clients in the US, UK, Europe and other regions. Some of them are deployed and some are in progress. One of the very useful iBeacon apps that our team has deployed on Apple App Store is Partiac Pro – an application that will connect the customers visiting local bars in the US.
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Heena Banga is a Senior Content Developer at Konstant Infosolutions- a globally recognized mobile application development company. She leads marketing and growth initiatives at the company using a mix of technical and business content tactics. Heena also contributes articles to CrowdReviews, OpenSourceForU, Sociableblog, ducttapemarketing, PAYMILL blog. She hopes to enjoy a business conversation onboard a commercial space flight someday. Her ultimate goal is to combine business and writing and go into Advertising.
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