Off the top of my head..
- People will need to find somewhere to purchase Beacon hardware in all the various forms and niches they're starting to emerge
- Beacon management systems need an place to live online
- Users will need to find information on specifications and deployments
- There will be people who companies who specialise in the physical deployment of Beacons and strategy (i.e how many beacons does my store need? Where should I put them?)
- There were be companies who specialise in developing Beacon specific applications
- There will be companies who specialise in Beacon analytics
I read somewhere that Beacons are the fastest growing retail technology since the credit card scanner. Whilst it's the Macy's and McDonalds of the world who are starting to use it now, it will eventually trickle down into smaller stores and there will be plenty of new businesses who will want to service them.
So I guess in this sense, maybe John Smith walking into a store may not have a reason to recognise the term "Beacon", but anyone with a brick and mortar location definitely will. To get connected with the supplies and services they're after, they'll need to search for "Beacons".
I guess the other terms people might use is "Proximity marketing" or "Location based X", and I have some names in this space too, but "Beacon" makes it all happen.
And don't forget, we're just talking retail here. There is still home automation, events, games, education, wayfinding and many other use for the technology..
