Although this blog post shares an upcoming feature in the next major release, don't wait! You can buy XE7 now and get the next major release for free!

What are Beacons?
Beacons are small transmitting devices that broadcast a small quantity of repeated information on a preset interval. They typically use Low Energy Bluetooth aka Smarth Bluetooth or Bluetooth LE.

What do Beacons do?
Beacons provide proximity and identification information. A mobile app can determine distance to a given beacon by measuring and comparing its signal strength at different moments in time. The data that beacons transmit are packaged into UUID, Major ID, and Minor ID. These values can be read by a mobile app and used to establish contextual identification.

Beacons Specifications
There are two primary beacon specifications, iBeacons and AltBeacons. Both will be supported.

A preview of the TBeacon Component

A USB powered RADBeacon from Radius Networks