Ecommerce and RetailMobile and Tablet Marketing

What You Didn’t Hear at the Apple Keynote: iBeacons

It’s just my opinion, but the last Apple presentation seemed to get a bit of a lukewarm reception. Apple’s design is both a blessing and a curse to the company. If Apple doesn’t release a big product or design change, the audience grumbles. It’s a very short-sighted view of a company that has led the technology industry for a couple decades in technology, design and profitability.

With the latest keynote, one of the quiet mentions that was overlooked was a product called iBeacons. Only a few news outlets have mentioned iBeacons to date, including thepush, Apple Insider, GigaOm and Forbes. All of those articles are worth the read!

iBeacons are vendor agnostic and use a BlueTooth Smart technology. A low-cost trio of beacons ($99) can be mounted around stores and can accurately triangulate your location. Imagine the potential! If you’re in a supermarket, no more wandering around looking for what you need. A future shopping list application could order your list so you can efficiently make it through the store – and include some specials along the way (or out of the way). This improves the customer experience and brings specials to the customer in real-time. As well, the device is recording where you stop along the way… perhaps capturing customer information on your interests. Wow.

Apple Insider calls this micro-location. What was missed in the Apple keynote is that this isn’t the future – this is now. The software developer kit for iOS7 already includes the technology and the iBeacons are already on sale.

Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is CMO of OpenINSIGHTS and the founder of the Martech Zone. Douglas has helped dozens of successful MarTech startups, has assisted in the due diligence of over $5 bil in Martech acquisitions and investments, and continues to assist companies in implementing and automating their sales and marketing strategies. Douglas is an internationally recognized digital transformation and MarTech expert and speaker. Douglas is also a published author of a Dummie's guide and a business leadership book.

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