A digital publishing startup company has come up with an innovative use for Apple’s wireless iBeacon technology. Publishers can publicize their iOS based digital magazine apps by making them free for viewing at specific locations.
Using iBeacons, publishers can give readers the same ability to browse a magazine that they would at a real, live newsstand. The concept of magazine promotion by iBeacons was created by Exact Editions, which is calling its service for publishers “ByPlace.”
Via ByPlace, the iBeacon serves as a key to unlock specified applications for connected iOS devices in the area. A tiny, battery powered iBeacon device could allow publishers to offer access to free content to users in a 15 meter area.
Exact Editions claims publishers and developers can attach several apps to a specific iBeacon, and then change the content remotely when needed.
The company sees the use of its ByPlace transmitter specifically appealing for publishers, as it can be used to sell magazine subscription. Niche audiences can be reached in specific venues, such as film magazines in a movie theater, or business targeted magazines in an airport lounge.
Venues that offer the free digital publications could also include “discrete” branding in the magazines, and can track which magazines generate the most business, in order to choose future offerings more wisely.
ByPlace iBeacons have already been tested around the globe, with such offerings as Opera Magazine at The Metropolitan Opera in New York City, The Catholic Herald at Westminster Cathedral in the Vatican, and Music Week for Abbey Road visitors.
