As iBeacons market becomes more and more competitive the prices start to drop. An example for that is the beacon in iblue beacon pack with 9 year battery life and 60 meter range. The high-end beacon was available by now only in limited quantities and for no less than $100 each, very interesting option as it can save a lot of on the maintenance.
We just spotted recently a huge discount available on that beacon, on sale now for only $59.95 offered by BUYibeacons.NET here: http://buyibeacons.net/index.php/9year-battery-ibeacons-long-life-beacons.html
The parameters are also very promising. 9 year iBlue beacon package, Water Resistant, 200 ft Range, SNF beacon, Security Encryption, RM CORTEX MO, TX output calibrated to +I- 1dBM, fully customizable, optional: Buzzer, LED.
There are also few other beacons at BUYibeacons.NET which seems to be the world’s first marketplace for ibeacons but we expect more like that to emerge soon.
Price depends a lot on manufacturing costs. We will begin to see price optimized Bluetooth radio chips tailored specifically for the iBeacon role.
The majority of the iBeacon devices sold today are based on grossly over-competent Systems On a Chip devices that contains numerous circuitry that remain unused in a pure iBeacon use case but cater for various more complex IO controller scenarios. By scaling down to the chips even arrive preprogrammed/certified for the use case saves costs for the iBecon manufacturer. But it all depends on volume. As long as the over-competent chips go in huge volume even a scaled down chip will not be able to compete on price until they also reach volume.