We are back with another issue of ‘Best of Beacons this Week’. This week we’ve got a great lineup of beacon articles in store, including MobStac’s partnership with Xamarin, how beacons can help Apple make its streaming music service free, virtual beacons, an exciting alternative to standard beacons and more. Have a look at our picks below:

1. Bringing Beaconstac to Xamarin Developers

We, at MobStac, believe that the full potential of BLE and iBeacon will come from what developers around the world apply it to with their collective imagination. Taking a step further in this direction, we are excited to partner with Xamarin, a fast-growing, cross-platform app development platform and make Beaconstac available to C# developers looking to create compelling iBeacon-enabled apps.. We’re kicking off the partnership with an exciting #BeaconPotential contest alongside Xamarin, encouraging developers to put on their creativity hat and dive into the world of context. You can read more about it here.

2. iBeacon and Why Apple Streaming Music Might Be Free 

Apple currently is pressing ahead with Beats engineers and executives to introduce Apple’s own subscription streaming service that would allow the company to compete directly with streaming upstarts like Spotify. However, according to the New York Times, many industry analysts have recently predicted a tough climb for Apple’s new streaming music service, mainly because of the absence of a lower price than other rival services. But most of these reports are looking for the Apple advantage in all the wrong places – by focusing on apps and pricing, iTunes and vivid visuals. While these factors are important, Apple alone has one access to a platform for music which is larger than the Web and bigger than mobile – a platform made possible, in part, by iBeacons. Check out this post to learn how beacons can help Apple make its streaming music service free.

3. 4 Ways Beacons ensure You lead a Smart Life

Having been actively involved in pushing the IoT barrier, beacons will continue to impact almost every aspect of our daily lives as days go by. In fact, according to a recent Business Insider report, the Internet of Things market is expected to add $1.7 trillion in value to the global economy, by 2019. While brands across various industry verticals, are busy deploying beacons on a large scale, few of them have come up with innovative beacon implementations that help with monitoring diet, productivity, granular car location etc. Check out this post to learn more about four such brands that are leveraging beacons to simplify our daily lives.

4. iBeacons – Retailers are still experimenting

Over the last year, beacons have become so popular that retail brands all over are busy experimenting with beacons to enhance consumer experiences in-store. One of the main factors that differentiates a great retail app from a good one, is the seamless integration of contextual intelligence into the app experience – an advantage offered by beacons. However, not all retailers are aware of how to integrate beacons with their mobile strategy. And this can result in disappointing beacon trials. Check out this article to learn more about the mistakes made by Lyle & Scott in their proximity marketing campaign.

5. SmartFocus announces ‘virtual beacons’ so retailers can draw in-store targeting

When it comes to choosing the right beacon for your business, there are a number of factors to consider. Among them, deciding on opting for a battery powered beacon or a USB powered beacon, is one of most crucial ones. Omnichannel marketer SmartFocus recently announced an exciting new solution to this, virtual beacons. However, the service is not entirely virtual, as it requires one AC-powered, multi-frequency beacon (not the battery-powered, low-energy Bluetooth one) from any manufacturer, for an entire store regardless of size. Check out this article to learn more about how retailers can use SmartFocus’ virtual beacons to define geozones using the floor plan.