The tiny devices are making a huge change to almost every industry. The recently launched Eddystone and the previously launched iBeacon never fails to surprise. Read More... http://goo.gl/K6Shic

1. iBeacon Vs Eddystone:
Transmission war between the small yet powerful devices
Stores and businesses are competing very hard to satisfy their clients and customers and they are also
implementing the current technology launches to keep things updated in business. Beacon has become
one such system that – in recent times – serves every industry starting from travel to retail.
What is a beacon?
Beacons are transmitters that use Bluetooth low energy (BLE) technology to transmit tiny packets of
information to the nearby Bluetooth enabled devices (Smartphone, Smart watches, etc.). The
transmission distance depends upon the device, and it varies from 50 meters to nearly 120 meters. Now,
there are two major beacons namely,
 iBeacon
 Eddystone

2. iBeacon – Apple’s proud device:
Launched a couple of years back in the Apple Worldwide Developers
Conferences (2013), the iBeacons were used initially in Apple stores (United
States) to trigger in-store offers to the customers. Later, many other retailers
started deploying this system for their stores. The information transmitted by
the iBeacon has the following so that the system can identify the information
accordingly.
 Universally Unique Identifier (UUID)
 Major ID
 Minor ID
Eddystone – New in the beacon space:
Everyone was expecting Google to enter into the world
of beacon, and it acted little late when compared with
Apple Inc. A couple of months back – in July 2015 –
launched Eddystone, an open-source, cross-platform
device. It was inspired from and named after Eddystone
Lighthouse on the British coast. Google also introduced a
new feature called Ephemeral Identifiers (EID) that
continually changes the identifiers. Because of EID, the
Eddystone cannot be cloned resulting in higher security.
iBeacon Vs Eddystone – The cold war:
Beacons does the same thing – transmitting data – irrespective of their manufacturers. Both, the Apple’s
and Google’s beacon have similarities and also few differences that make one better than the other. The
following are the difference between iBeacons and Eddystone
 iBeacons only work on iOS devices whereas the Eddystone can work on both Android and iOS.
Google play services have the Nearby API that Eddystone can use and the came can be invoked via a
library on iOS.
 Eddystone supports multiple data packets and they have initially started with two for
advertisement namely Eddystone-UID and Eddystone-URL. But, iBeacons supports only one data
packet for advertising.
 iBeacons doesn’t offer any options to monitor the device condition while the Eddystone has a

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third type of packet called Eddystone-TLM as it is a telemetry to inform about the device’s health
status.
 iBeacons are easy to implement whereas the Eddystone is flexible, but little complicated to code
as it sends many types of data when compared with iBeacons.
 Eddystone is open and available on GitHub for manufacturers and developer to help, contribute
and comment on it. iBeacons are not open source and the changes stay in the hands of Apple.
Now, Google’s Eddystone is turning out to be the biggest competitor of Apple’s iBeacon and started
changing the face of Beacon games. Many mobile apps are being developed to support both the beacons
and even mobile app development companies are inserting their fingers to help people and organizations
gain a lot from this tiny yet powerful device.
Author Bio:
A graduate in Engineering and Journalism with a passion for photography and travel, Dhinesh
Rajarathinam loves to write about various niches from arts to technology. He is currently working as a
Technical Content Writer in K2B Solutions, a leading Web and Mobile App Development Company in
India.