Apple Inc. has come up with a system to assist Apple Store shoppers, a media report said.
The iBeacon sends messages to shoppers inside a store on product orders, promotions or to check if they are eligible for an upgrade, the Associated Press reported.
The system was rolled out at Apple’s AAPL -0.78% 254 U.S. stores on Friday, the report said. The iBeacon is activated if a user has downloaded the Apple Store app and given it permission to track that user.
ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall tried it out, and gave the system a “mixed-to-slightly negative” review.
Among his complaints: The deals offered through iBeacon weren’t that impressive.
“After looking at iPhones for roughly a minute, a notification was sent asking us to check our status for iPhone upgrade eligibility,” he told clients in a note. “After checking, we were only offered a $200 credit to upgrade to the iPhone 5s from our current iPhone 5 (which we respectively declined to do). Additionally, Apple was only willing to pay us $98 for our slightly used 32GB iPhone 5 (or about 50% less than the $205 currently offered by Gazelle).”
Then, he added, iBeacon became annoying as the system “repeated the same iPhone upgrade eligibility notification again after several minutes of continued browsing.” And as he was checking out the iPad and Mac stations, ” no notifications were offered on these products but we again received notifications requesting an iPhone upgrade eligibility check.”
“We believe iBeacon will become an attractive marketing/sales tool over time, but were somewhat disappointed by the lack of functionality and customer experience on Day 1,” Marshall said. |
