iBeacon Technology: What, Why, and How

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iBeacon Technology

In BlogiBeacon

So, you’ve heard about contextual computing, micro location, beacons, and all that fancy stuff, and here’s the spooky part to get to the bottom of iBeacon technology.

Today’s catching fire ibeacon technology is the new buzz around the technology world with the new way of connecting with customers. There has been a lot of hype around ibeacons which sounds like exactly the right time for a quick look on ibeacon technology and what it’s all about. So without further ado, here’s the fundamental of what, why and how ibeacon technology and its possibilities and backing for more organization of all sizes to benefit from it today.

What: Location-based customer communication

Firstly, let's cover the tedious technical bit - what is iBeacon? iBeacon is a new technology developed by Apple, which allows mobile apps to emit or listen for small Bluetooth, (BLE), signals on a micro-local scale to get an awareness of its setting. iBeacons enhances and broadens the functionality of the Location Services within your iOS 7 device.

As the enabling technology iBeacon to alert apps or websites when someone approaches or leaves a site. In other words, retail or other venues that have beacons in place can able to get to know where a customer is at any given moment. This is the key part, of course, the retailer or other business can push timely notifications to the customer for promoting products or providing other useful information.

If a potential buyer is walking past a retail store; they’ve downloaded the retailer’s mobile app, the retailer can use timely beacon messages to grab their attention as they go by, enticing them to visit. Once the customer enters the store, to give a personal touch with the help of beacons the retailer can offer personalized offers, speedy checkout processes and more to enhance the shopping experience and pretty much to improve the business.

Why: The power to revolutionize customer experiences

ibeacons “the missing piece in the whole mobile-shopping puzzle for enterprises to take advantage of opportunities. Pointing to the approach of sending timely push messages to users without them having to do anything at all to get engaged with customers in a more personalized way. ibeacons overcomes a “major hurdle” for companies with very simple interactions that makes customer engagements completely in a personal touch.

How: Smaller hardware and Bluetooth Low Energy

iBeacons make use of Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) wireless technology designed as a plurality of security mechanisms: authentication, authorization, encryption and algorithms to prevent data interception. With BLE ibeacons spot the location of customers in stores and other places and to deliver messages to their mobile devices. Specifically, a beacon emits a BLE signal that will listen by a retailer’s or other company’s app on a user's smartphone and then react accordingly depending on the sensor it is closest. ibeacons are far more private than RFID because ibeacons give users control of the apps that leverage the beacon. This also generally means that ibeacons are authenticated and with user permission, which can ultimately lead to the vast experiences as a result.

In conclusion

As of today, the ibeacon technology equation makes a bit more sense with location-based features on a micro-local scale. iBeacon allows us to not only work out if the user is in the building, but in which room so achieve of this technology can make your business to a great extend.

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