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Apple Inc.'s retail stores have a silent partner in Qualcomm Inc.
Since the Christmas season, more than 250 of the stores have been equipped with radio devices from the San Diego-based tech company. These low-power Gimbal-brand proximity beacons, slightly larger than a deck of cards, let Apple pinpoint where a customer is inside its store and send that customer notifications appropriate to his or her location.
It's one of several uses that businesses and other big organizations are finding for the Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) product.
At the Apple Store in University Towne Center, the system sends a welcome message to a visitor's iPhone when that person initially walks through the door.
If a person loiters in front of the accessories rack long enough, the system will send that visitor's iPhone a message, offering...