Apple's Beacon Technology Uses Bluetooth Smart for Interacting with Consumers

What is 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).

For example, imagine you walk into a mall with an iPhone 5s (which comes with iOS 7 and iBeacon). You are approaching Shoprite, which means your iPhone is entering into Shoprite’s iBeacon region. Essentially 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 from personalized microlocation-based notification and actions.

Retailers and other large indoor spaces can use this technology called iBeacon to send data over short distances to iPhones.

Apple quietly announced iBeacon, one of the more prominent features of iOS 7.
In context, iBeacon can provide the information you needed when it is needed. iBeacons even allow you to pay the bill using your smart phone. The best 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.

Companies such as StickNFind and Estimote are already creating cheap iBeacon-compatible hardware. They can also be used by the Android 4.3 operating system or later

Watch demonstration video click here