Let me make sure I’ve got this straight.

Apple ships a 64-bit processor. Qualcomm labels it a marketing gimmick. Then Qualcomm announces their own 64-bit processor, saying, “We see this transition happening and we want to be there to help enable the ecosystem.”

OK, got it. But wait, there’s more.

Now Qualcomm is shipping their version of the Apple iBeacon.

Gimbal is a comprehensive context aware, proximity platform for brands to engage their customers’ mobile devices with highly relevant communications using a powerful combination of physical location, activity, time and personal interests. Gimbal helps increase the relevance of content delivered to end users’ devices, filtering out the irrelevant and offering more personalized experiences, thereby allowing retailers, venues, content providers and developers to send personalized high-value content to enhance their users’ mobile devices. The overall Gimbal context aware platform supports iOS® and Android™; while the new Gimbal proximity beacons support iOS today with planned support for Android.

Some original thinking, Qualcomm.

The good news is, this expands the platform. Any iOS apps that make use of iBeacon technology will just work with Qualcomm’s Gimbal. As it should be.