“Qualcomm Inc is spinning off its location awareness technology, which is compatible with Apple Inc’s iBeacon version, to a group of investors including music, sports and arena conglomerate AEG,” Noel Randewich reports for Reuters.
“The chipmaker said on Wednesday it sold the business as a newly formed entity called Gimbal Inc. One investor is the i-Hatch LBS Fund, which includes strategic investors Zebra Technologies Corporation and AEG. Qualcomm will remain a minority investor,” Randewich reports. “A Qualcomm spokesperson declined to disclose financial details.”
“The advanced Bluetooth technology behind Gimbal, which can be more accurate than GPS and works indoors, meets standards for iBeacon technology used in Apple stores,” Randewich reports. “In March, San Diego, California-based Qualcomm said it had been chosen to supply iBeacon-compatible equipment to be used in 20 Major League Baseball stadiums.”
Read more in the full article here.
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Seems a little odd from the Qualcomm perspective at first sight, must be some logic to it somewhere maybe needs big finance to allow it to expand to meet the potential I guess.
Perhaps the technology that makes it compatible with iBeacon requires licensing fees paid to Apple and Qualcomm refuses to pay for the privilege, but still sees a future in iBeacon.
Absolutely no reason to need to pay licensing fees to Apple. Anyone can setup any BLE beacon to be compatible with iBeacon. And anyone can listen for those beacons as well.
Gimbal was originally a competing BLE beacon platform (hardware+protocol+API) to Apple’s iBeacon. It seems that Qualcomm may have decided to throw in the towel, especially since most (if not all) developers are moving towards the iBeacon protocol. Apple made it dead simple to listen to and respond to beacons with iOS 7, which could explain its quick rise in popularity.
Thanks for the right answer
I just took delivery of my three free Gimbal beacons! Had a little play with them.