General
Apple Watch, AirDrop, iBeacon & Continuity coax advanced features from Bluetooth & WiFi from AppleInsider provides an excellent overview of how Apple uses Bluetooth (3.0+HS, 4.0 LE) and WiFi in various combinations to provide advanced features including AirDrop, iBeacons, Continuity, and the upcoming Apple Watch.
iBeacons Hardware
The BEEKn website provides this Guide to iBeacon Hardware by Doug Thompson listing iBeacons and Bluetooth Low Energy hardware devices.
The Aislelabs website provides The Hitchhikers Guide to iBeacon Hardware: A Comprehensive Report by Aislelabs examines 16 different iBeacon hardware vendors.
iBeacons Installations
This is the beginnings of a list of announced iBeacons installations:
- Apple Retail Stores (US retail stores)
- Giant Eagle (US grocery store)
- KLM Airport Navigation Service (Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Android now, iOS in the near future)
- Major League Baseball (2o stadiums)
- Rouse Properties (34 malls in US)
- Safeway (US grocery store)
- SXSW (Music, film, and interactive event)
This is a list of installations using similar but alternative technology:
- Walt Disney Parks and Resorts MyMagic+ / MagicBand (Walt Disney World Resort, Enchanted Art on cruise ships)
- MagicBand Teardown (revealing active 2.4 GHz transmitter, passive UHF tag radio, and passive HF RFID tag radio)
iBeacons Startups
These Startup companies are featuring iBeacons as a prominent part of their business:
- Airfy, beacon hardware and app
- Berlin, Germany
- Aislelabs, “intelligent cloud for in-store marketing”
- Toronto, Ontario
- $1.5M raised in 1 round
- Beacondo, “iBeacon apps for everyone”
- BEACONinside, “iBeacon hardware & software solutions”
- Berlin, Germany
- Estimote, beacon hardware, “real world context for you apps”
- Walnut Grove, California
- $3.40M raised in 4 rounds
- Hyprloco, “cloud-based SaaS, robust API’s & SDK’s, waypoint analytics”
- Denver, Colorado
- indoo.rs, “indoor localization with iBeacon support”
- Lower Austria (headquarters), Vienna (developer office), Silicon Valley
- Unknown amount raised in 1 round
- Kontakt.io, “Kontakt.io Beacons + ( API + SDK + Cloud ) Platform = Complete Solution”
- Kraków, Poland
- $2.250M raised in 2 rounds from 1 investor, latest in 28 Jul 2014
- Localz, “micro-location experience & iBeacon tools for enterprise”
- Melbourne, Australia
- Mahana, “enterprise-grade beacon platform”
- Austin, Texas
- Raising $500,000 (see AngelList), 4 Jun 2014
- Minodes, “comprehensive services to enhance your store performance”
- Berlin, Germany
- Nimble Devices, “indoor positioning and navigation for apps”
- Espoo, Finland
- Nomi, “omni-channel marketing platform that helps retailers better engage their customers”
- New York, New York
- $13M raised in 2 rounds
- Proximity Mobile, “real world interaction in your channel”
- Sydney, Australia
- Pulsate, “mobile marketing for the physical world”
- Dublin, Ireland
- Rover, “iBeacon platform for retailers”
- Raising $300,000 (see AngelList), 14 Sep 2014
- Sensorberg, “enable your app to interact with iBeacon”
- Berlin, Germany
- €750,000 raised from Berlin Technologie Holding and undisclosed angels, 23 Jan 2014
- ShopJoy, “we create a better shopping experience”
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Swirl, “iBeacon marketing platform”
- Boston, Massachusetts
- $14M raised in 2 rounds
- Thirdshelf, “build your branded retail loyalty app”
- Montreal, Quebec
- uLocation, “real-world context for your applications”
- São Mateus, Brazil
- Wave-A-Lot, “we put brands into wallets. the mobile kind.”
- Tampa, Florida
- Yoints, “platform solution for increasing customer engagement for the retail industry”
- Hamburg, Germany
Source for funding data: CrunchBase
iBeacons Blogs & Websites
- Apple Support – iOS: Understanding iBeacon
- AppleInsider – posts with topic of iBeacons
- BEEKn – Beacons, brand and culture on the Internet of Things
- iBeacon.com – iBeacon News Everyday
- iBeacons Blog – On iBeacons, NFC and mobile marketing tech
- LabWerk Blog – iBeacon news