So hot is the market for beacons in retail environments that Qualcomm has spun off its own platform into a standalone business unit based around its Gimbal technology. The company has signed an agreement with a group of outside investors to turn its existing subsidiary, Qualcomm Retail Solutions, into an independent entity, controlled by the third party backers but with Qualcomm retaining a stake and being the technology provider. It will be named after its key asset, Gimbal. The investors include a mixture of strategic and venture capitalist players, among them the i-Hatch LBS Fund, which has participants such as barcode/RFID specialist Zebra Technologies and AEG. Other investors were not named, and Qualcomm said its own stake remains a ‘substantial…