Todd Dipaola has seen the future of advertising, and it's a Giant Eagle grocery store in Cleveland.
Dipaola's
company, inMarket, will today begin turning on a network of sensors in
dozens of grocery stores in Cleveland, Seattle, and San Francisco that
will allow companies to beam advertisements to people's smartphones at
the exact moment they're standing in aisle six trying to decide which
brand of beans to buy.
This scenario has been the dream of
retailers and advertisers for years, but it's become more plausible in
recent months because of an update to Apple's (AAPL) mobile technology.
Many observers see the feature, called iBeacon, as the most important
part of iOS7, even though more attention was paid to the radical design
changes. The technology allows Apple to pinpoint the location of a
smartphone user within a few feet by bouncing signals off of inexpensive
sensors constantly on the lookout. Because the technology uses
Bluetooth Low Energy to send and receive signals, it can do so in
confined spaces like stores without draining phone batteries.
Story: Apple's Location-Tracking iBeacon Is Poised for Use in Retail Sales
For
developers and retailers, the enthusiasm about iBeacon is based on
targeted advertising; we're talking about Silicon Valley, after all.
"The more data you have about the customer, the more you can upsell
them," explains Hari Gottipati, an independent tech consultant in
Phoenix.
Apps such as Google Maps and FourSquare have long used
location data to try to improve the average person's mobile experience.
But that could be just the tip of the location iceberg as Bluetooth's
latest technology revolutionizes how people interact with everyday
objects and places.
With iOS 7, Apple unveiled iBeacon, a feature
that uses Bluetooth 4.0, a location based technology. This makes it
possible for sensors to detect — within inches — how close a phone is.
This is opening the door for groundbreaking services that could enhance
the average person's life.
"This might be the next big
technology,"said Radius Networks chief executive Marc Wallace. "I think
there's a huge opportunity for developers to run with this and develop
cool applications." In one early implementation, Radius Networks teamed
with the Consumer Electronics Association to launch an iBeacon-powered
scavenger hunt at CES this week.
"From an opportunity perspective,
I'd say everything is in place, and this thing is poised to be huge. The
real question is over the next year there's going to be a lot of
experimentation, learning, etc.," said Rob Murphy, vice president of
marketing at Swirl, which is working with retailers to capitalize on the
potential of iBeacons. "There will be a bunch more success stories. I
think there will be some failures along the way."
Although it was
only recently introduced as part of the iOS 7 mobile operating system
upgrade, Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iBeacon micro-location technology is
being increasingly used by various retailers and other businesses.
Apple's iBeacon technology uses the Bluetooth Low Energy communications
standard to send notifications to mobile devices based on their
proximity to a transmitter. The system is ideal for indoor tracking and
can pinpoint a user's location far more accurately than GPS can.
Last
month, Apple revealed that it has started using its iBeacon
micro-location technology at all of its 254 U.S. stores. Macy's
(NYSE:M) has also installed "ShopBeacons" that use Apple's iBeacon
technology in several of its retail locations, while Major League
Baseball is exploring the use of an iBeacon-based navigation system for
its stadiums.
However, as the use of this technology spreads,
some privacy advocates have raised concerns about the amount of data
that is being collected about consumers. Although Apple requires its
users to give their permission before the iBeacon system is activated,
some advocates are concerned that some consent forms do not adequately
explain the amount of data that can be culled from mobile device
tracking systems.
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