Imagine, for a moment, working tirelessly to build a startup that exists in a new space, a new market, you're an early entrant that hopes to establish the standard platform. Those dreams can change quickly though, and that's especially true when a giant like Apple storms into the space armed with seemingly endless resources. It is a disruption capable of shifting the power balance, changing strategy and causing numerous entrepreneurs to pivot their businesses. News out of Cupertino, Calif., this week puts that scenario into light for two D.C.-based startups.
Earlier this week, AppleInsider reported, citing Apple developer Steven Troughton-Smith, that Apple could soon unveil "its first dedicated indoor positioning [and tracking] app for iPhone" called Survey App. The software can reportedly measure a user's precise indoor positioning without the need to install special hardware on premise, offering what could become an immensely powerful tool for a myriad of uses, including contextual advertising.
As Business Insider notes, it's likely that this new capability was born via the acquisition of WiFiSLAM, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup that Apple bought in 2013 for $20 million. The tech reportedly uses "radio frequency (RF) signal data and combines it with an iPhone's sensor data," making internet-connected beacons/sensors apparently unnecessary.
Locally, there is two startups that are pioneering related beacon/sensor hardware. And today, it appears that they must conform to Apple's influence.
Interestingly, BeaconGrid (formerly SmarterSocket) CEO Emmanuel Azih and Radius Networks CEO Marc Wallace have been planning around this development for months. Both companies are hardware designers aka sensor makers, however, so their tech is technically not a "direct" competitor to Survey App so much as it must now mold around Apple's lead.
Georgetown-based Radius Networks develops cloud-based bluetooth proximity beacons that can interact with nearby mobile devices. In early February, the startup raised a $6.5 million seed funding round led by Core Capital Partners, Contour Venture Partners and Wa.-based Trilogy Equity Partners. Some of its current high profile customers include the Verizon center, Fedex Field, CES, the Cleveland Museum of Art and National Geographic.
BeaconGrid specializes in a sensor that layers over electrical plugs, enabling further control and data related to interconnected devices that enter a geo-fence proximity. Similarly, the tech uses Wi-Fi and bluetooth connection to review position and user movement. The two D.C. startups employ a fairly similar product, though with slightly different focuses.
'Announcements from Apple, and similarly, Google and Samsung, help promote the power and possibilities of mobile proximity'
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For Wallace, he's been closely monitoring Apple's IoT (Internet of Things) exploits since WWDC 2013, when Apple first announced iBeacon.
iBeacon is not a piece of hardware, rather it is a protocol/framework standardized by Apple that uses low energy bluetooth proximity sensing to transmit data between systems. While it's unclear how iBeacon will work alongside the newly revealed Survey App, it appears that the two protocols would complete somewhat similar and possible conflicting tasks.
Radius Networks, founded by a team of former SwapDrive engineers and executives, was one of the first proximity tech hardware providers to adopt and license iBeacon from Apple. And they're a certified Apple iBeacon partner.
"As Apple makes their plans for third party developers and licensees more clear, we will be looking for ways to leverage these new indoor navigation capabilities to further enhance our industry leading solutions," Wallace told DC Inno, "this is another endorsement of the importance of the proximity and positioning market space. Announcements from industry leaders like Apple, and similarly, Google and Samsung, help promote the power and possibilities of mobile proximity and positioning technology to major enterprise brands and act as a catalyst for many major deployments we are delivering today."
From BeaconGrid's point of view, the news of Survey App's development is also not very damaging to their business because at least Apple is not campaign a hardware standard in addition to a software platform. In fact, perhaps surprisingly, the new Apple development may produce a boost for the company in a way that couldn't have been predicted.
Azih explained that "in general, positioning systems use Radio Frequency (RF) fingerprinting to project one's indoor position onto a floorpan. And today RF fingerprinting relies on signals from Wi-Fi access points to determine that indoor position. Without getting too technical, what this means is that Apple's [new] positioning system will actually work a lot better when used in any building outfitted with our beacon outlets. This is because each beacon outlet effectively serves as an additional access point from which Apple may calculate indoor positioning thereby increasing the accuracy of the entire system."
BeaconGrid is also, as you may have already assumed, a certified iBeacon partner.
He added, "when major players take beacon-related actions, the entire industry takes notice. What Apple is doing here really isn't beacon threatening. In fact, I think it may eventually lead to a better beacon ecosystem."
