Apple Partners With MLB To Enhance Gameday Experience With iOS's iBeacon

Apple has a new indoor mapping feature in iOS 7 called iBeacon, and Major League Baseball has wasted no time in leveraging the feature to enhance the gameday experience at ballparks. The MLB’s At the Ballpark app will use the feature to create “micro-locations” within stadiums and offer information on points of interest as you walk past them, a virtual hole punch for food vendors at the stadiums, team store discounts, locate your seats, and more.

Major League Baseball's At the Ballpark app for iOS with iBeacon
Credit: Mashable

The MLB’s iOS app developer, Marc Abramson, told Mashable, “We've been looking at customizing the app based on where you are within the stadium, but GPS is notorious for not working indoors, especially when you are in a building made of steel. Instead, we are incorporating Apple's new Bluetooth and iBeacon technologies for iOS 7 and couldn't be more excited about the potential."

Apple has been working with the MLB on the free app since February, but it despite a demo at the Met’s Citi Field, it may not be available until 2014.