Hey All, We have just launched a new campaign on Indiegogo for the manufacturing of iBeacons for iOS and Android. Take a look at it and let me know what you think. Any support will be highly appreciated. http://igg.me/at/beacoin/x/6050459 Beacons seem to be getting a lot of hype these days and so we thought we go ahead and manufacture it and open up the possibilities to all devs around the world. Our SDK will be open source and will be made available once we reach the goal. Have a good day.
I read it quickly and couldn't figure the purpose of the device. I think if your asking people for support it needs to be superclear what the device actually is and what benefit having the device is.
Hey thanks for the tip. I have updated the campaign page so that users can have more insight into the device and its capabilities.
Ok. So a beacon is a bluetooth transmitter. So lets say you walk into a car showroom and are close to a particular model, a push notification will appear on your device and ask if if you would like to know more information on that model. If you click yes then it will pull information from a web server and present it to you. When you move away from this model the app will dismiss the view. So the possibility is endless as this opens up indoor positioning which was never around before.
It also seems like it could be quite invasive and upset consumers who are now essentially receiving spam. I would only ever consider this if it was an opt in thing. If it was opt in there could be some fun experiences in museums and shops but I personally think it is a fairly limited and niche device. It is also something Joe public wouldn't be interesting but more advertisers, cause thats what it essentially is.
You may try approaching mid to high end art galleries in your area. We are a collection of artists, so of course that is the first thing we thought when we saw this idea. Museums may not be quite as responsive initially, since they have more bureaucracy and often have their own systems in place for things like this. There's enough money in that market to possibly justify the costs for the gallery, and the "cool" factor is something that may entice them even beyond the intended functionality. Just a thought.
I work in a museum and we use those android tags (NTS?) for one of the displays we have. I think that is really the key market for this. I still think opt in is a key. Maybe it is opt in because I have never had one of these popups on my phone. I wonder how close and precise they can be. Like could you have 5 products in a row each with its own one. I actually think you should reshoot with some videos showing your product being used in awesome ways, especially if you can think of personal interests in it.
I also think you should start your text on your website with what you told me just before, under Beacoin start with the above text. New product idea, so most people have no idea at all what it is.
I'm actually working on a game using iBeacons and I'll definitely check this out. The game is not really an iOS gaming app but it's more like hide-and-seek or geocaching using your iPhone as a device that works with the iBeacon.