“A survey conducted by Forrester earlier this year found that only 3 percent of retailers use beacons; just 16 percent had plans to try the technology in the foreseeable future,” Joshua Brustein reports for Bloomberg. “When Reveal Mobile, an analytics company, did a census of beacons in U.S. retail stores this spring, it found that Apple’s own stores accounted for about 15 percent of the existing beacons.”
“Companies that sell beacons and related services to retailers struggle to point to big success stories, even as boosters insist that the technology is on the verge of success. For the people who run startups such as Shopkick, InMarket, or Estimote, which are based on bets that beacons will soon be everywhere, the issue is more expectations than results,” Brustein reports. “‘They’re not ubiquitous yet, but they will be ubiquitous in a couple of years,’ said Todd DiPaola, chief executive officer of InMarket.”
“Part of the problem, in fact, might stem from Apple’s association with the public introduction of beacons. Steve Cheney, co-founder of Estimote, would prefer that everyone see Apple’s iBeacon effort as a mere developer protocol, not a finished product to transform shopping,” Brustein reports. “‘People — associating it with Apple — expected it to work out of the box, so to speak,’ he said. ‘It is happening at about the pace we expected.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Patience. Just because Bloomberg decided to concoct an article headlined “Apple’s Failed Retail Revolution” that claims failure over an artificial timeline that Bloomberg themselves constructed out of straw doesn’t mean Apple’s iBeacon, or beacons in general, are a failure. It actually takes time to roll out a technology to every retailer to the point of ubiquity. Yes, Virginia, er… Joshua, such major endeavors do not happen instantly.
SEE ALSO:
Apple iBeacon finds its way into McDonald’s and sandwich sales increase – December 18, 2014
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