Does Apple’s iBeacon have real world usability for the average consumer

Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iBeacon technology is seeing increasing use at various retail locations and sporting venues around the world. Besides its own retail outlets, the Cupertino enterprise has rolled out iBeacons at several other major retailers and at several sports arenas in the United States. Both MLB and NBA teams are using iBeacons to sell seat upgrades and advertise specials to enthusiasts attending baseball or basketball games. Several museums seem to be in the process of installing iBeacons also. However, there is also talk of using the iBeacon system in much smaller venues – mom and pop retail stores and even the home.

At the core of home use is a new app called Placed, which is available on iTunes for $2.99. This app is compatible with iOS 7.0 and later versions, and can be used on iPhones from the iPhone 4S onward, as well as all types of iPad and the iPod Touch. Obviously, the devices need to have wireless communications capability in order to receive data from iBeacons, which transmit via low energy Bluetooth signals. The app, which is placed in the “productivity” category, quick-launches apps related to the specific room of the house where the user currently is.

Each location, obviously, needs an iBeacon of some sort to function there. Several firms are already producing retail level iBeacon equivalents which will combine the low cost, good functionality, and low technical bar for setup that will make them suitable for use in the home. Estimote Beacons, for example, is planning to offer a three-iBeacon kit for use in houses or “mom and pop stores” for $99. Obviously, this beacon would not have the bandwidth or projection power to work at a sports arena or in a huge department store, but it is quite capable of opening a cookbook app at a range of a few feet when someone walks into the kitchen. In fact, the planned range of the signal is three feet, meaning several beacons could be place in one room.

The quick-launch capabilities would also allow the app and small retail beacons, working together, to open other location-related apps around the house. A similar use in mom and pop stores might be closer to the iBeacons used in sports venues. A small beacon could send a signal to wandering shoppers with iPhones, drawing their attention to the $2 off sale on canned pitted prunes from Kalamazoo, or the 2 for 1 deal on breakfast cereal. On approaching the cash register, the beacon might prompt them not to forget to pick up a tabloid on their way past the rack.

Intriguing as these notions are, the question remains as to their practicality. People are only likely to use iBeacon-like technology with their Apple Inc. (AAPL) iPhone if it decreases their workload rather than increasing it. Trivial tasks that can be handled faster without apps will likely continue to be handled in this way. For example, looking in the refrigerator to see how much milk is in the bottle would be more efficient that bringing up a grocery list app and scrolling through it to see how recently milk was last purchased.

At this point in time, the spread of iBeacons into American homes and convenience stores seems fairly unlikely to occur on any significant scale. The efficiencies introduced would be very weak in the small-scale environments involved. Though gimmicky and attention-getting, the idea has little entertainment value, either. However, it is also possible that home iBeacon use is an untapped market merely awaiting an entrepreneurial genius to arrival and spark it into profitable life with a suite of conveniences that nobody had even thought of before.