Published January 4, 2017
MIST BLE ALLIANCE IS A CLARION CALL FOR
INDUSTRY COLLABORATION
Author: Patrick Connolly, Principal Analyst
There have been a lot of trials and PoCs for BLE beacon technology over the last 3 years, with many lessons learned along the way.
One of the biggest barriers has been the interoperability of the necessary components required for a successful customer-facing
solution. ABI Research has always urged companies to look at the overall solution before moving forward. With indoor location and
beacon solutions, it is critical that marketing and IT are in sync in delivering a customer-facing solution using BLE beacons. In this ABI
Insight, ABI Research will investigate the recent formation of the Mist BLE Alliance, looking specifically at two core use cases (wayfinding
and proximity notification) of BLE, the companies that form the alliance, and the benefits of these companies coming together to form a
cohesive ecosystem.
WAYFIND/INDOOR LOCATION
ABI Research has forecast the explosive adoption of wayfinding across a wide range of verticals, including hospitals, airports, hotels,
museums, stadiums, grocery, big box, malls, and department stores. Having indoor navigation capabilities enhances the employee,
guest, and customer experience in these venues, while also opening up the opportunity for better location-based analytics for resources
optimization.
The use of wayfinding/indoor location has evolved from the early days of this market, but the components required to build a
successful customer-facing indoor location solution remain the same, namely, indoor map, blue dot location, and finally a great
customer-facing mobile application that provides a compelling user experience. Due to the complexity of these various components,
most of the companies in the Mist BLE ecosystem focus on one or two of the key variables listed above, leaving other functions to
specialized companies. (This creates an opportunity for solutions providers to add value by stitching together customized solutions that
best meet customer demands.)
Figure 1 is a Venn diagram of the Mist BLE Alliance, illustrating
various companies that deliver the needed wayfinding components.
Mist, for example, provides the blue dot for wayfinding, which is
exposed to vendors like Connexient, RoamingAround, and
Phunware, who provide mapping software and mobile applications
to take advantage of location services. (Connexient is focused on
healthcare, RoamingAround on hospitality, while Phunware spans
multiple verticals.)
Micello and Jibestream focus exclusively on indoor mapping for
wayfinding, while Entappia handles the application development
part of the equation. All of these vendors span the major verticals
using wayfinding today, which include healthcare, hospitality, retail,
and enterprise.
www.abiresearch.com
Figure 1: Mist BLE Alliance Wayfind/Indoor Location Venn Diagram
MIST BLE ALLIANCE IS A CLARION CALL FOR INDUSTRY COLLABORATION
1
PROXIMITY MESSAGING
Proximity messaging has always been one of the key advantages of BLE as both a standard and an indoor engagement technology.
Much like wayfinding, there are three core elements to supporting proximity messaging: customized content, SDK/APIs, and application
support. The new alliance ticks all the boxes, with expertise across all three areas. For example, Mist provides the virtual beacon and
messaging technology and location-based analytics. On top of this, Connexient, RoamingAround, and Phunware once again offer a
wide breadth of functions for proximity messaging, including application development, SDK integration, and content (in the same
verticals referenced above for wayfinding). In addition, Mist has partnered with Swirl to provide proximity-based marketing services in the
hospitality and retail spaces.
CONCLUSIONS
For stakeholders who are considering indoor location or have
previously trialed and failed, this alliance presents a single-source
ecosystem
of
component
vendors
and
single-stop
system
integrations. It not only promises to lower costs and relieve
deployment headaches through product interoperability testing, but
the joint marketing/sales efforts of these companies will accelerate
the rapid adoption of BLE location technology and services, which
ABI Research projects will reach US$5 billion dollars by 2021.
From an industry perspective, huge established companies like
Google and Apple have struggled to support all aspects required
for a robust indoor location ecosystem. And over the last few years,
Figure 2: Mist BLE Alliance Proximity Messaging Venn Diagram
many startups have tried and failed at being everything to everyone,
requiring them to eventually specialize or pivot in the end. What
hasn’t occurred thus far is the creation of strong cooperation across a range of best-of-breed vendors to meet the multiple and varying
needs of retail, industrial, and corporate markets, which is a model that ABI Research has encouraged for a number of years.
The complexity of indoor location combined with the scale of the opportunities in this greenfield space makes collaboration the
most logical way to grow efficiently across a variety of verticals. This also helps to solve the problem of standing out in probably the
most competitive startup space I have ever seen. This is why we are excited to see the Mist BLE Alliance come together, which we
anticipate will help drive the BLE market through lower deployment costs and easier ongoing management of best-of-breed joint
solutions. In addition, and perhaps most importantly, the Mist BLE Alliance will help drive strategic use cases that enhance the wireless
experience, including wayfinding and proximity messaging (profiled here) as well as workspace utilization, asset tracking, and new
applications yet to be explored.
© 2017 ABI Research. Used by permission. ABI Research is an independent producer of market analysis and insight and this ABI Research product is the result of objective research
by ABI Research staff at the time of data collection. The opinions of ABI Research or its analysts on any subject are continually revised based on the most current data available. The information
contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. ABI Research disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
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MIST BLE ALLIANCE IS A CLARION CALL FOR INDUSTRY COLLABORATION
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