“Apple’s iBeacon solution is proliferating much faster than realized as the company sets the foundations for its next retail revolution,” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld.
“Apple’s other retail-focused solutions — Apple Pay, TouchID and iOS devices, including Apple Watch, mean the company now sits at the center of both online and offline relationships between consumers and retailers,” Evans writes. “This is going to become even more critical as Apple continues to disrupt consumer culture.”
“Retailers are all over the technology: Macy’s, Lord & Taylor and The Bay are using beacons, while Starwood Hotels & Resorts (of the famously iPad-using CEO) use it in around 30 hotels. Hillshire Brands used beacons in ten US cities to track shopper behavior in supermarkets,” Evans writes. “The rate of adoption is rapid — far more rapid than recognized.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Estimote makes ‘Nearables’ – iBeacon stickers you can stick on anything – August 22, 2014
Apple and the omnichannel: 9 industries already using Apple’s iBeacon – July 29, 2014
Hudson’s Bay and Lord & Taylor roll out Apple’s iBeacon tech across North America – July 28, 2014
Hundreds of London businesses are about to flip the switch on payments via iBeacons – June 19, 2014
inMarket: iBeacon increases in-store app usage, retention, and brand engagement – June 16, 2014
Google wants in on Apple Inc.’s iBeacon party – June 9, 2014
GE integrates iBeacon into new LED light fixtures, Walmart installing in stores worldwide – May 29, 2014
Walgreens and Walmart testing iBeacon, Motorola Solutions launches iBeacon marketing platform – May 7, 2014
Virgin Atlantic trials Apple iBeacon tech for iPhone users at London Heathrow Airport – May 2, 2014
New York City bars to use Apple’s iBeacon for pub crawl promo – April 28, 2014
New sunglasses with iBeacon notify you when lost, act as beacons in retail – April 28, 2014
Quiet disruption is a good one. Unlike the ones that make headlines, the quiet ones keep going until it’s TOO LATE to even remotely play catch up.
Perhaps Tim Cook is learning how to use silence and not commenting more strategically than Stever Jobs did. While I’d say the jury is still out on that one, and it’s still early, there are some intriguing signs.
Apple Pay, for the record, works at Home Depot, who was on the list of that other thing, I won’t mention. Since they had the breach, and upgraded their equipment in response, I noticed the RFID logo on the card reader and decided to give it a try, and it worked!
Just saying.
I’ve used Apple Pay at Home Depot frequently. I was even able to successfully return an item and get a credit to my account.
Remember when the nay sayers were telling us how long it had been since coming up with anything new? How they had lost their skill at innovating. iBeacon is another example of a disruptive technology, but it’s aimed more at business that at the user… at least in terms of which group will be wowed by it.
It takes a long time to conceptualize, develop, and produce a consumer hardware product that is disruptive. But i Beacon, along with a lot of other products show that Apple has been super busy during what seemed like years of silence. If it has taught us anything, it’s that we have to listen “outside the box” if we’re going to have a clue on what “next big thing” Apple is working on.
As for the analysts… I’d say, not so much. Generally worthless and with no real skill in understanding the company that Steve Jobs built.
I’m not sure exactly how iBeacon works, but I do know it’s primarily geared toward stores and other public places.
However I had a more interesting idea for this technology. Like including it inside household devices, so your home knows where you are and sets the lighting, temperature, possibly music and volume, or other things to your own predefined preference. Could even be capable of meeting in the middle if two people with differences are in the same room.
It could lock your home doors and unlock them only as you approach the door from the inside or use Touch ID from the outside, and automatically lock them when you leave the door from either side. If someone unknown approaches the door it could display a security video feed.
When it senses no one is home it could put your entire house into energy saving mode.
I want a fully automated smart home, not just one that is just as dumb as old tech with a gimmicky remote control from an app or set on manual timers. It’s not smart unless it’s automatic and requires no user interaction.
Lights could fade on as you approach a new room and fade off as you leave another. Research the technology Bill Gates has in his home, but imagine a more modern and capable (and more affordable) method of doing this through location-aware iBeacon.
Is this what HomeKit can do? If not, they really need to make this possible. It sure sounds like the future to me.
iBeacon isn’t needed for any of this.
iBeacon, is just that… a beacon. It does nothing but transmit a code. It can’t receive anything.
On the other hand WiFi and Bluetooth can receive. Bluetooth is why my door locks open and close when I touch them and have my iPhone on me (you don’t want them locking/unlocking solely because you approach them).
“Hillshire Brands used beacons in ten US cities to track shopper behavior in supermarkets,”
Thanks, but no thanks! i don’t want my ‘behaviour’ tracked. I don’t want ‘suggestions’ in store. I don’t want targetted adverts to ‘enhance my shopping experience.’
Count me out!
That sucks!
I know it can be really hard not to install an app that using iBeacons. And if you screw up and accidentally install an app that does, it’s pretty painful to not authorize the iBeacon.
/s
I routinely get Safeway prices _better_ than their weekly ads, due to the “tracking”. I’m all for it, when it benefits me like this..