This week we are going to introduce you to the popular technology of the year, “iBeacon”, which is the talk among technical giants. As many of you know it was the technology introduced by the techno giant Apple,  Ever wondered to know more about iBeacon well, we take the liberty to make you know more about it through our blog of this week.

What is iBeacon :

Even it is a talk of the year many of them have no idea on exactly what it is.Is it one like the NFC, Introduced by Nokia or something like share and copy of the Bluetooth technology. Well here we are to make you understand more about this “iBeacon”

“Using Bluetooth Low Energy(BLE), iBeacon opens up a new whole dimension by creating a beacon around regions  so your app can be alerted when users enter them. Beacons are a small wireless sensors placed inside any physical space that transmit data to your iPhone using Bluetooth Low Energy (also known as Bluetooth 4.0 and Bluetooth Smart).”

    We know that your are just beginning to understand and let us make it more easy to you,  iBeacon comes into play in a scenario, let us take you to a shopping mall, you are  approaching some shop say, Denim it means you and your iPhonen5s (which come with iOs7 and iBeacon)are entering the beacon set by Denim.

    iBeacon can transmit customized coupons or even walking directions to the aisle  where a particular item is  located. It can prompt a customer with special promotions or a  personalized messages and recommendations based on their current location or past history with the company. Smartphones that are in an iBeacon zone will benefit personalized micro location based notification and actions.

                              In this age of information, where we flow for bits and bytes of data, iBeacon can provide you with the information at the right place at the right time. And the brighter part iBeacon even allows you to pay bill using your smart phone and even more brighter part iBeacon can run for up to two years on a single coin battery and it comes with accelerometer, flash memory, a powerful ARM processor and Bluetooth connectivity. Also, you can add more sensors to iBeacon to provide better context.

NFC vs iBeacon :

Well, we all know that one technology which exists similar to iBeacon was NFC.By the launch of iBeacon in june one thing which made us more clear is that iBeacon has been more spectacular than NFC because of its range, NFC tags are pretty cheap compared to NFC chips, but NFC tags are required on each product because NFC works only in very close proximity. NFC range is upto 20 cm(7.87 inches) and on optimal range it has 4cm(1.57inches), also your mobile device should have NFC chip to support NFC communication ! Thats why we meant iBeacon is going to be a killer for NFC, with its range of 50meters and support for mobile devices with bluetooth. And yeah you said it right iBeacon is going to be a stage breaker !

Is it affordable ?

                                  This question arise when we go through a new technology and we plan to establish one for ourself or our office. Then suddenly this question arises, is it affordable? Lets have a small calculation to know whether iBeacon  can be affordable .If you are so dull to calculate with mind, well take you calculator and make those business calculation !

                                Lets say the average area occupied by your store is 1,75,000 square feet,  which is 16,258 square meters. iBeacon’s range is 50 meters (typical  Bluetooth range), or 2,500 square meters. So a typical store would need 7  iBeacons. “Estimate”, a company which just launched to sell beacons, is  taking pre-orders at the price of $99 for 3 beacons. The range of Estimate’s  beacons is 50 meters, but the recommended range is 10 meters. If you go  with the recommendation, you need 1 Estimate beacon for every 100 square meters, which would cost you about $5,000. If your store wanted to add NFC tags (each at 10 cents) to all its products to send information to phones, it would cost $1,000 for 10,000 products, $10,000 for 100,000 products and $100,000 for 1 million products. NFC may not be needed on all products, but this will give a rough idea on how much it could cost.

Is it the future ?

                    Yeah, be you a gadget lover or a business person or a technical reviewer one thing you ask first is it the technology of future. Considering iBeacon we can notice leading legends trying to make their leap step towards iBeacon,

                           Google has been heavily focused on NFC from the beginning and it didn’t add platform support for BLE until the release of version 4.3. Lot of the apps that rely on BLE couldn’t release the apps for Android phones. Some Android OEM vendors recognized the need and rolled out their own implementations. Google finally listened to the demand and made it part of Android 4.3. But Google has continued to push on NFC and rolled out the NFC-based Android Beam in Android 4.0.

                Apple has avoided NFC and all the rumors about NFC getting  added to iPhone 4 and iPhone 5 are turned out to be false. Instead of  NFC, Apple worked on alternatives using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. During  the introduction of iOS 7′s AirDrop at WWDC in June, Apple’s mobile  development chief Craig Federighi said, “There’s no need to wander  around the room, bumping your phone,” referring how NFC phones      need to be very close to transfer the data. As stated on Apple’s website:

                        AirDrop  lets you quickly and easily share photos, videos, contacts — and anything else from any app with a Share button. Just tap Share, then select the person you want to share with. AirDrop does the rest using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. No setup required. And transfers are encrypted, so what you share is highly secure.

                        Yeah having this giants Google and Apple with their hands on iBeacon ! who would deny it’s success being the future of data transmission.