All this begs the question—does Apple have a local strategy? In my opinion, yes. And does this strategy have the capability to change the way merchants think about local? Yes. iOS7 and iBeacon create an ecosystem-wide network effect overnight, with standard technology, offered in an open development environment. It’s very clear that Apple is starting to put the pieces together to allow consumers to make offline transactions with their device—imagine being in a store and authorizing a payment with your fingerprint and never talking to a salesperson. All Apple has to do is open its payment APIs to get to this level, the rest of the stack is already being exposed.

Some interesting thoughts by Steve on iBeacon. I can’t wait to see practical implementations in Italy.

(I’ll probably have to wait years for that, considering how I still have to try Passbook in real life – where by “real life” I don’t mean taking screenshots of the app for MacStories.)