How To Choose The Best Location Based Service Technology For Your App?

Being available to customers on demand is a challenging task faced by enterprises across the world. Reaching and engaging your mobile audience is the best way to tackle this. Integrating Location Based Service (LBS) technology into your business app is an ideal move to realize this goal.

Having a fabulous mobile application with location-aware services will help you flourish in today’s incredibly dynamic environment.

Location-based marketing is your cup of tea if:

1. You are keen to build a mobile app that takes advantage of the latest technology advancements.

2. You intensely desire to make your app a super-engaging and worthwhile one.

3. You want to have a valuable interaction with your target audience in close proximity.

4. You want to give immediate access of info related to your products and services to the app users. This is done to increase the likelihood of a direct sale.

5. You want to gain exceptional insights on the buying habits and activities of your customers.

6. You want to give targeted sales offering

Apps incorporated with LBS technology have a definite edge over apps without this capability. This is mainly because of the hyperlocal marketing made possible by it.

Industry Domain is Not a Limit for LBS

We are increasingly addicted to apps to meet our myriad needs of day-to-day life. The geo-location service is not a feature in route-finding apps alone. Apps belonging to a variety of categories ask for access to our location when we download it. For instance; apps dealing with social networking, emergency response, information, e-commerce, transportation, geo-tagging, restaurant/venue/entertainment finding, navigation, games, Augmented Reality (AR) etc. leverage the location-aware technology. In other words, any industry domain can stand benefitted with this technology.

How to Choose the Right LBS Technology?

Capability to recognize your customer’s location at any time opens up the golden gate to innovative sales, marketing, and business opportunities. The basic function of LBS technology is providing the most relevant info at the right time. It does this by tracking the movement of a device and reporting it to the server.

If you are determined to integrate geolocation features in your mobile app, choosing the best LBS technology is of utmost importance. There are three major LBS technology systems namely:

1. GPS (Global Positioning System)

2. Beacons

3. Wi-Fi (wireless networking technology)

There is nothing called a perfect single solution. Each of these technologies carry its own benefits and limitations. Depending on your business objectives and budget, you need to combine two or more LBS technologies.

1. GPS

GPS is a major LBS technology that tracks customers’ location based on the precise search criteria. This satellite navigation system offers a wide array of info ranging from location, date, time, driving directions etc.

Approximately 90% of the apps installed in our smartphones have GPS functionality in them. Businesses dealing with transportation, tracking services, travel, weather alert etc. or delivery of information pertaining to location/distance/traffic etc. can greatly benefit from the GPS technology.

GPS geo-fencing helps businesses to send push-notifications to devices installed with their app. When the prospective customers step inside the virtual boundaries; alerts, reminders, coupons, sales offerings, and other marketing tactics can be sent.

Advantages of GPS:

• Highly available and accessible as GPS is an inherent capability in smartphones

• Cost-effective

• Unlimited Range

• Requires user consent

• A good choice for outdoor environment

• Prompts a radius of interested customers to take favorable action

Disadvantages of GPS:

• Huge battery drain, and hence, limited battery life

• Not suitable for indoor

If location-based advertising is a goal of your business, GPS is a simple and great option. In order to enhance the reliability of GPS indoors, you might have to supplement your app with other technologies while indoors.

2. Beacon

Beacons are small wireless transmitters that release Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signals. These signals are recognized by Bluetooth-enabled devices within a specific range.

If you are looking for a great LBS technology for the indoor business environment, Beacon is the answer. Shopping malls, restaurants, retail shops, healthcare, automation, indoor entertainment venues etc. can use Beacons as they offer precise indoor info on positioning. Beacons trigger efficient push notifications when target audience enter within a range of a beacon. Moreover, Beacons do not need any devoted hardware as all smartphones are Bluetooth-supported.

Advantages of Beacon

• Hyper-local and hyper personalized content based on the specific location

• Low cost infrastructure

• High compatibility across devices: about 80% of iPhones and 20% of Android smartphones are Beacon-compatible.

• Less power consumption

• Easy deployment

• Does not intrude privacy as it requires the user to opt-in or opt-out.

Disadvantages of Beacon

• Limited range – it usually has a wireless range of 1m to 70 m

• Accuracy can be hindered due to different factors/objects

• If your prime emphasis is on context-aware messaging for an indoor environment, Beacons can be a lifesaver.

3. Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) technology that allows computers and other devices to communicate over a wireless signal. It enables your device to access the Internet from anywhere within the signal range. It also helps you to access other devices connected to your network.

Advantages of Wi-Fi

• Widely and easily accessible

• Promotional content can reach devices without dedicated apps. You can send push notifications even if the app is not open. Active internet connection is the only requirement.

• Does not incur any additional cost, as Wi-Fi is a vital part of any business setup.

• Greater range than Beacons

Disadvantages of Wi-Fi

• Not great for micro-locationing.

• Less accurate when compared to Beacons

• Wi-Fi devices consume more power than Bluetooth devices

• It requires users to agree to a connection each time they enter a business location

Wi-Fi is a good option for an indoor GPS system. If you are focussing on context-relevant messaging, Wi-Fi is not as good as Beacons.

Wi-Fi and Beacon technologies can be used in tandem to reap beneficial results. The former can offer navigational assistance, while the latter offering personalized interactions once the customers are in proximity. Businesses can create innovative contextually relevant experiences by combining these technologies.

Beacon is considered as the future of LBS technology as it can accomplish a lot when compared to GPS and Wi-Fi.

Are you looking for the right developers to realize this?

It is a proven fact that LBS technology offers an effective proximity-based marketing strategy. You need to choose an ideal location-aware technology for your app depending on the use cases and your business goals.

We (Bridge Global) have a stack of global IT talents. Our specialists have expertise in developing mobile applications with the latest and innovative location-aware technologies embedded in it. Our satisfied clientele is glad about the skill sets and technical proficiency of our extended technical team. Contact us to meet your IT resource and software solution needs.