Beacon Technologies: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Beacosystem

As both a “raving fan” and entrepreneur using beacon technology and proximity marketing, though not a technology “coder” myself, I have been searching for and reviewing all books related to the topic. This is not that difficult a task, as there is relatively little on point, and even less of substance that deserves mention. Then came Stephen Statler’s “Beacon Technologies: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Beacosystem. This is, without doubt, the best most comprehensive treatise on beacons and related proximity marketing technologies on the planet, and as such, is worth many multiplies of its retail price. It includes everything about the topic, from initial development to current innovations, vendors, deployments, etc., the author is one of the most knowledgeable folks on the topic, clearly “in the game,” and not just writing about the subject from a distance. Furthermore, in those areas where he is not an authority, he had others contribute (contributions from a leading attorney on regulation, a “programmatic advertising primer” from a leading academic on the technology, etc.). What I also very much liked, given that I am not a developer, is that the book was somewhat technical, but written in way that you do not have to be a programmer or engineer to understand and appreciate the information (a rare talent in itself with books on emerging technologies). To sum it all up, I can unequivocally say this is the best book I have found on the “beacosystem,” and take this from someone who searches out the topic constantly.

I'm only 30% through the book but so far this has been one of the best books covering this technology. It covers almost anything you can think of regarding Bluetooth low energy beacons. It's also very up to date and covers the announcements made by Google during their 2016 I/O conference (physical web, new Eddystone features...etc).Another important thing to note is that the Kindle format is a pleasure to read; the images are clear, colors are great and formatting is perfect.I'll probably end up buying the physical copy just to have it as a quick reference that I can easily grab off my bookshelf.This is a highly recommended read, and it covers all aspects from technical to business to analysis of the current players in the market. I honestly can't find any negatives so far!

If you are looking for a crash course in the entire Beacon eco-system this is the starting point. It has the right balance between sharing enough information to really help you understand the concepts and the business applications without getting to far into the technical weeds. This book will give you or your team the foundation to start to think about the why, the how and even a little bit of the who in order to deploy your specific strategy. Highly recommended for any executive looking to get a crash course on location based marketing with beacons.

This is an excelent book to all people interested in the proximity technologies.I am almosy 80% through the book and I found ALL what I read usefull for what I was looking for.If you want to have all the information about beacon in a single coherent place, and written by someone who is inside the business and with a 360 vew of all involved actors you must buy this book.I promise you will not regret

What an amazing learning experience for me! This book is wonderful and well written. Every new comer to the Beacosystem should read it.

Excellent reference book for any one who wants to know about beacons.

A humorous and accessible introduction to beacons.

A treasure trove of information on beacons and related technologies across the proximity marketing and location based services ecosystems. Includes useful information about the technologies and their real-world application as well as business and policy matters. The authors span a broad cross-section of the industry, providing for a variety of expert perspectives that would be hard to find in any other single place. It is a handy go to reference guide for the executive and hands on practitioner.

The subtitle is apropos: It is indeed a perfect hitchhiker's guide to the beaconsysteym. A handbook of sorts that touches upon everything on the subject in sufficient detail.I picked up this book a couple of months back and read all of it quickly. (BLE) beacons are an exciting technology, though I got the feeling that the relatively low barrier to entry---it is also a simple technology---would make it prone to abuse. Then I learnt about Google's decision to stop delivering Nearby Notifications in Android for Eddystone and Physical Web beacons as of December 2018; their reasoning: "[W]e noticed a significant increase in locally irrelevant and spammy notifications that were leading to a poor user experience." However, Android's Proximity Beacons API remains supported and can be used by apps to deliver proximity beacon triggered services through an app.