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Marsh Supermarkets, inMarket create iBeacon platform that extends to Apple Watch
Marsh Supermarkets - which operates 81 supermarkets under the Marsh, O'Malia's Food Markets, and MainStreet Market locations in Indiana and Ohio - and retail mobile marketing firm inMarket today announced the launch of a new iBeacon platform that allows users of the Marsh and the inMarket List Ease apps to be alerted as they move through the stores. The big news, though, is that the inMarket Proximity iBeacon platform is the first announced that will work with Apple Watch. According to Amit Bhardwaj, the senior director of customer loyalty for Marsh Supermarkets, "iBeacons have created new ways to connect with mobile shoppers in the store, and inMarket allows us to reach many of our shoppers through the apps they love and use everyday. Now with wearable integration, shoppers who use Apple Watch will enjoy the same digitally-augmented, real-world shopping experience." The idea is that shoppers wearing Apple Watch will be able to opt into receiving recipes, offers, and alerts as soon as the device becomes available and the apps are updated. The video below shows just how the inMarket Proximity SDK works with the List Ease app to provide shoppers with a shopping list on their wrists that can be checked off with a tap.
Grocery stores use Apple's iBeacon to remind you what you're shopping for
Many of us will occasionally forget to pick up important ingredients when visiting the grocery store, but that absent-mindedness may not be a problem for much longer. A handful of Giant Eagle and Safeway locations are now using a new marketing service, InMarket's Mobile to Mortar, that relies on Apple's iBeacon to send proximity-based notifications while you're wandering the aisles. In addition to offering on-the-spot coupons and rewards, the system can remind you what's on your shopping list at just the right moment. It can also send an alert when someone adds to the list; if the family runs out of juice while you're in the store, you'll know to buy another jug before you reach the checkout line. Only certain Giant Eagle and Safeway outlets in Cleveland, San Francisco and Seattle are using Mobile to Mortar at launch, but InMarket promises more news in the months ahead.
Adobe announces Air 2.5 for TVs, tablets and phones, launches Adobe InMarket to package apps
Adobe's making a serious play for the app space today, and it's not limiting itself to phones -- its new Air cross-platform runtime environment is designed to toss apps on your smart televisions and tablets as well. Air 2.5 supports accelerometers, multi-touch gestures, cameras and microphones, GPS data and hardware acceleration in a variety of silicon. What's more, the company wants a piece of the action, so it's going to help developers bring their Air 2.5 apps to market by partnering with the stores themselves, and charging a mere 30 percent to take care of your hosting, billing and app store approval -- though we're informed the service will be free for the first year if you sign up today. The newly-christened Adobe InMarket won't help you get into the iTunes App Store, as you might expect, but it should assist with the Intel AppUp store... and perhaps a pair of brand-new marketplaces from RIM and Samsung as well. Remember when Samsung said it had a single platform for TV and phones late last week? We think this was what the company was talking about, because we have Adobe's word that the Samsung SmartTV will run Air 2.5 apps when it launches in early 2011. Air will also come standard in RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook, but it's not just for fun, productivity and games there -- Adobe told us that the PlayBook's entire UI is built on Air. We're not sure quite what we think of Adobe's role as encapsulated software middleman in the TV and tablet spaces, but we suppose that's what the firm's been doing on desktop PCs for years -- after all, what's Adobe Reader but a free way to open licensed PDFs? You should find the Adobe Air 2.5 SDK available on the company's website today, and a full press release after the break.
