So many beacons, so little time.
It seems that almost every day a new beacon-related announcement or introduction comes across my desk.
At the moment, the mobile beacon world is explosive. And it is a truly global phenomenon.
Outside of its global nature, what strikes me as even more significant about beaconing is the breadth of offerings.
Beacons are like the complexity of the mobile payments space on steroids.
With an estimated 50 suppliers manufacturing beacons, there will be 30,000 active just in the U.S. by the end of this year, according to Business Insider Intelligence, which I wrote about here a while back (Beacons, Beacons, Everywhere Beacons).
In addition to what I consider the beacon companies, there also are companies that use beacons as part of a larger platform. I view this as beacons minor and beacons major.
In the grand scheme, the beacon is the easy part. They’re small, not expensive and relatively easy to install.
There can be uses where an extensive platform is not needed, such as using beacons to provide simple but useful information, like arriving bus or train status, based on the beacon location.
There will be many beacon minor companies. They can provide relatively quick and easy beacon implementations that don’t break the bank.
The interaction with beaconed customers at scale is the not-so-easy part. That’s where the beacon majors live. They run platforms that use beacons.
Organizations selecting beaconing companies are being faced with a constantly growing number of choices. And beacons will be everywhere.
The beacon wave is growing.
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Interested in beacons? Learn all about them and how they are being used at the MediaPost conference on beacons, Nov. 3 in New York (IoT: Beacons).