IDG Contributor Network: Wi-Fi challenges Bluetooth for the beacon market
The proximity engagement market just became more competitive. The Wi-Fi Alliance recently unveiled Wi-Fi Aware as an alternative to Bluetooth Smart, the technology behind the Apple iBeacon and Google Eddystone specifications.
Question: Is Wi-Fi Aware sufficiently different and compelling to entice beacon device and proximity engagement application developers?
A quick refresher: Proximity engagement solutions bring to life places and objects in the physical world by tagging them with digital content. Apple’s iBeacon relies primarily on smartphone apps, and most iBeacon developers are focused on retail store shopper engagement. Google’s Eddystone aims to create a “physical web” of sensors and machines accessed via mobile browsers. Both emphasize the use of small, inconspicuous devices that broadcast the same short message over and over, can be deployed practically anywhere, and can run for years off a coin cell battery.
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