Apple today quietly switched on what many consider to be a secret weapon of iOS 7: iBeacons. The technology allows your iPhone to provide a location-aware shopping experience whenever you walk into any Apple Store in the US. It does this by communicating with tiny, low-power Bluetooth transmitters hidden above shelves and under product display tables. These transmitters reveal your precise location to the Apple Store app, enabling it to instantly ping you with notifications about hardware you're toying with at any given moment. Perhaps more importantly, it also highlights features of the Apple Store app you may not have known about. For instance, approaching the iPhone section will result in a prompt asking if you'd like to check your upgrade eligibility.
But Apple's stores are just the first step; iBeacons could start popping up at retailers, museums, sports arenas, and countless other destinations in the months to come. Macy's is already conducting a private iBeacon trial through a partnership with Shopkick. (An authorized app is necessary to make iBeacon work. Nothing happens if you don't have an app capable of "listening" for the transmitters installed.) Since the potential here is so big, we decided to waste no time testing the technology at Apple's stores. To put it lightly, we came away with mixed results.
No comments:
Post a Comment