The Emerging iBeacon Ecosystem – August 2014
45+ ways to add iBeacon to your business
Just over 1 year since its introduction, Apple's iBeacon and other Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) products, hardware and CMS platforms are hitting rapid growth. We have identified over 45 different hardware and platform providers. We are seeing the fastest growth in CMS platforms for managing iBeacon campaigns. These are platforms all businesses use to upload creative and manage which beacons send out which content. These platforms also manage the range of the beacon and trigger actions for distributing the content.
Apple iBeacon Use Cases
We are also seeing an increase in retail and travel use cases being explored, with a number of airlines including JAL and Virgin announcing plans to use iBeacons to help with customer service. Some of the more interesting installations are happening at film, music, and summer festivals where iBeacons are being used to enhance the user experience and track activity through the event.
At OHO, we've been using iBeacon CMS platforms to develop applications for travel and tourism. We have created experiences to surprise and delight travels at hotels with special promotions, excursions, and exclusive content. For healthcare, we've been brainstorming with leading hospitals to find secure ways to improve the patient experience.
If you're just getting started with iBeacons, check out our weekly summaries of iBeacon news and use cases.