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first published week of: 11/21/2016
The precise information you need, delivered exactly when and where you need it. Personalized engagement and experiences. Easy step-by-step navigation. These are just some of the things you get with indoor location-based services.
Similar functions have existed outdoors for more than a decade thanks to GPS and apps like Google Maps. However, indoor location services have seen much slower adoption. But that’s started to change, and in 2017 we’ll see it shift into the mainstream. Indoor location’s time has finally come, and here’s why:
The first catalyst for this shift is changes in our smartphones. Apple recently introduced iBeacon and Google launched Eddystone, both of which make Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) a standard on virtually every smart device. This means that every smartphone is now “location aware,” allowing stores, hospitals, schools, corporations, museums and more to deliver highly personalized services to anyone who walks in their doors.
In my view, this is as significant as when Intel added Wi-Fi to the Centrino processor in 2003. Once it was ubiquitous on every laptop, the technology took off like wildfire. Going into 2017, we are at a very similar inflection point with BLE. continued…