In the not too distant future, you walk by your favorite restaurant, and your cell phone beeps, you have a new message, It is an offer for 10% your meal, with photos and video...
What makes this shiny new toy different is that it is reaching you via Bluetooth!
Range? Up to half a mile with the right hardware. In Europe proximity marketing via bluetooth has already been used at bus stops to market "High School Musical" with downloadable ringtones, wallpapers, and discount codes.
Once you have the server set up the cost to send a message to users in range? $0
Proximity Marketing via Bluetooth coming soon to a cellphone near you.
What a horrible concept. This seems to have the potential to be another bothersome and unnecessary intrusion into our lives in the same category as unsolicited phone calls, email spam and junk faxes.
ReplyDeleteSuppose I am driving by a restaurant and my cell phone beeps indicating a message. I can interrupt my drive by pulling over, risk an accident by trying to read the message, hand the phone to a companion, or ignore it for later. When I do read the message it is an ad for a restaurant! If so, I would go to the restaurant and tell them that I will never be a paying customer at their restaurant again and explain why.
I am on the the national do not call list but still get unwanted calls. My spam filters seem to be doing a good job but why should so much time and money go into filtering spam? I used to get junk faxes but that seems to have stopped. I once got one from a local locksmith company. I called and told them I would never use their service and why. The person I talked to said others had called. I needed a locksmith a few years later, but went to someone else.
Nice posting. You are doing great. Keep it up.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Bluetooth proximity marketing seems more intrusive than other forms of mainstream advertising because we’re just not conditioned to be approached while we shop.
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