A lot of interesting announcements have come in from the Samsung Developer Conference which kicked off yesterday in San Francisco. Samsung has announced its very own location based alerts system which is an iBeacon rival. Samsung is calling it Proximity.
Proximity will allow businesses to send localized messages. For example you might be walking down an aisle in a major retailer's store when a message pops up on your device informing you of a particular deal or discount on some items. Applications aren't limited to stores since Proximity can also be used for directing attendees towards a seat in a theater or sporting venue.
Much like Apple's iBeacon, Proximity also relies upon Bluetooth LE beacons so both services work in a similar fashion. However Samsung is taking it up a notch. iBeacon requires users to be running an app for a particular business otherwise they won't see those messages, Samsung will be integrating support for Proximity within its Android software, so it will always be on and users won't have to worry about launching different apps at different venues.
This is good for businesses as well, particularly those that don't have their own standalone applications, but would nonetheless like to be able to send local messages to customers. Samsung hasn't said when Proximity will go live, it is currently working to get businesses onboard.
