Samsung recently realized they hadn’t copied Apple in everything, so the company is proud to introduce their “iBeacon” clone, “Proximity.”
The Korean electronics giant has a website introducing Samsung “Proximity,” a “mobile marketing platform that connects consumers with places via cutting-edge Samsung location and context-aware technology.” As nakedly awful as that sounds, the “marketing platform” described sounds a lot like Apple’s iBeacon — technology that enables communication between your mobile device and the places you go.
Just like iBeacon, you can be in a department or grocery store, and if the store is equipped with “Proximity” you could be notified about what the day’s specials are, what might go with that chopped steak you’re looking at, and a variety of other information.
On big difference between Samsung’s Proximity and Apple’s iBeacon is, you won’t have to go through that inconvenient step of actually saying you want the notifications by downloading a store-specific app. No sir! Proximity works at the system level, which means it can send notifications to an Android device even if the device doesn’t have the store’s app installed! What a time saver! (Still looking for the </SARCASM> tag on this thing… – Ed.)
