iBeacon

This is taking off a bit quicker than I would have guessed.

MacRumors is reporting:

Shopping app Shopkick has teamed up with Macy's to deliver the first retail-based iBeacons, allowing customers to find location-specific deals, discounts, and recommendations in the Shopkick app while in a participating Macy's store, located in Herald Square, New York and Union Square, San Francisco.

Apple's iBeacon microlocation APIs, first introduced at WWDC, are designed to access location data through the Bluetooth Low Energy profile on iOS devices, interacting with physical transmitters.

For more on iBeacon at an earlier post, click here.  

Near field communication (Android): 4 cm

iBeacon: 160 yards; scalable.