Beacon is a micro-location technology to determine the location of objects/persons in a limited area and comes with communication abilities by acting as relay towers. Therefore, modern businesses are in the queue on the doors of the mobile app development companies, which have proficiency in Beacon technology and knacks to implement it in customized & innovative ways.
Introduction:
Today mobiles are loaded with GPS capabilities. If you don’t know GPS, I would like to clarify it is a location-based technology where Geo-orbiting satellites determine the location of a person or device on the earth with the help of satellite signals and triangulation technologies.
GPS is a global phenomenon, but what about a closed premise where the possibility of receiving GPS signal is almost nil and precision in inches or feet is daunting. To overcome such micro-location issues, Beacon technologies were invented, which is based on Bluetooth technologies, and Bluetooth enabled devices to define the location in closed premises (Micro-location) instead of the satellites in the outer space of the globe.
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We won’t dive deeper to know how the Beacon technologies work and the technicality behind it. But we certainly know that Bluetooth is at the heart of Beacon technology for mobile hardware and OS as its support is ubiquitous in the latest handheld devices coming in the market now and then.
Small Bluetooth chips with sensors are embedded in button-like devices and work with BLE (Bluetooth Low-Energy) wireless technology to communicate with BLE-enabled mobile devices and compute the exact location of devices.
It helps marketers and owners of the Beacon application deliver location-based info or messages in real contexts when a user enters into the Bluetooth access field.
When we use Beacon technologies in iOS devices, it terms as ‘iBeacon’, while for the rest of the mobile OS platforms, it is merely ‘Beacon.’ With this clarification and understanding regarding Beacon technology.
Let’s check which domains leverage the Beacon or iBeacon technology the most. The technology adds values in various domain-specific mobile apps and helps iOS developers to give an edge in the market.
Hospitality Apps
The actual usage of iBeacon technology is within premises and significant to small premises like hotels, restaurants, inns, bars, casinos, and various food places are ideal cases to implement Beacon technology.
Beacon benefitting the hospitality industry in some decent ways, such as:
- Garner a virtual concierge accessible ubiquitously
- Quick and smooth check-in & out experiences through the mobile device itself
- Quick info on amenities available, vacancies, and exploration of POI (Point-of-Interest)
- Security by locking-unlocking doors using mobiles
- Orders through mobile devices on-table or in-room
- Deliver news and marketing stuff digitally
Museum & Zoos Apps
We know how tough it is to get a good guide and enjoy the visit of museums and zoos held in a big premise, with numerous compartments, in comfortable ways. Beacon placed in each compartment or gallery can deliver guidance, info, and messages to your visitors in an utterly contextual manner and in real-time as well.
Self-guided tours are possible with content-rich supports, and multimedia content that Beacon delivers are audio, video, animations, and texts. Other benefits of Beacon in museums and galleries are gaming, collecting data of visitors, and promotions.
Retail Apps
15 out of the top 20 retailers have implemented Beacon technology. Thus, retailers see bright prospects by adopting Beacon technology. They know many advantages in their businesses, such as getting insights into consumers’ behavior while searching ads, local ads, and roaming in the store. Thus, it provides back-office intelligence.
Retailers can reap the benefits of proximity marketing and location-based marketing. For retail consumers, Beacon technologies enhance engagement, allow them to reap the benefits of payment.
Event Apps
Many events cover a large area with closed and open premises that make event management more challenging, especially when several different activities are designated across the other arena. Beacon technology acts like a genie in due course, showering several advantages to the event organizers and even the participants.
For instance,
- It makes registration a smooth and soothing process instead of waiting in the queue at different booths.
- Extending networking capabilities by using social media and personal data provided by the users during the registration.
- Sponsorships through proximity marketing techniques when a user passes by certain stores or areas.
- Provide real-time navigation in the event or tradeshows/exhibitions.
- Multimedia content delivery.
- Auto check-in & out.
Public Transportation Terminals Apps
The Beacon technology can help us to make our transportation smart by being a part of IoT applications. The ultimate benefits of the Beacon use are:
- Way-finding
- Flight/train/bus/tram information
- Baggage collection
- Measuring proximity of gate/exit
- Digital and contactless ticketing
- The booking in Advance & payment
- Real-time announcements and messages
Thus, iBeacon technology provides end-to-end solutions to deliver seamless experiences for the people and the management staff.
Goods Transportation/Logistics & Fleet Apps
With the help of fixed Beacon and mobile Beacon concepts, asset tracking becomes easy.
- Big warehouses take advantage of Beacon technology to identify similar kinds or prepare a map of each asset in the vast warehouses.
- The same goes right for the big parking lots.
- GPS is excellent for location detection for moving cargoes, but tagging the goods in carrying cargo with Beacon helps cranes and goods loading staff identify their interests to load and reload in & out the shipments.
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Sports Apps
Sports events mostly occur in the big stadiums and where public access is allowed in managed ways. In sports events Beacon technology makes a difference in the following ways:
- Facilitate management to deliver welcome and goodbye messages to the audience.
- Extend the helping hands when dense crowd gathering occurs or long queues appear on particular booths or gates to avert the mishaps.
- With the fleet of beacons, sports authorities help visitors locate their seats, food stalls in the vicinity, and less crowded places to take rest.
- Delivering real-time info and messages regarding sports events and participants.
- Upsell the better seat.
- Creating networks or help people missing inmates.
- Offering marketing incentives or promotions in personalized ways.
Conclusion:
Beacon technology’s role is highly significant in a wide range of domains, and covering all here is out of scope and space. However, each field has specific needs and use cases to implement Beacon technology in mobile application development. It requires some prior experiences and expertise to deliver tailor-made solutions.
It is SysBunny and its mobile application development team, which is powerful enough to address your domain-specific needs beautifully and cost-effectively.
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