There is a raft of other offerings, from friend and pet finders to lifestyle applications. In business, LBS has been used for managing fleets and tracking mobile workers. Researcher In-Stat predicts growth on the business side from 582,000 to 1.1 million subscribed devices by the end of 2010.
Tech tools in place
Why now? For one thing, the technological infrastructure is largely in place. Wireless carrier networks are faster and more robust. More phones have decent color screens and extra horsepower to run LBS applications.
What's more, many cell phones, mostly those that work with Sprint Nextel and Verizon networks, now incorporate GPS chips, partly as a response by carriers to a government mandated Enhanced 911 program that was phased in at the end of last year. Uncle Sam wanted emergency workers to find folks who dial 911 from their cells.
(Other companies met the E911 mandate through "triangulation" methods that measure the time it takes signals to bounce off cell towers, or the angle of those signals.)
Brent Iadarola, industry research manager at Frost & Sullivan, expects the LBS market to get an additional boost in a couple of years when carriers such as Cingular Wireless and T-Mobile add GPS capabilities.
Once companies know where a handset is, they can construct applications that build on that knowledge. "If you're traveling on the interstate, you don't (necessarily) want to find the 'nearest' gas station if it's by the exit you just passed," says Mike Gerling, chief operating officer of map provider Tele Atlas North America. "You want to find the 'next' one."
Having the proper technology in place is only half the battle. Reaching consumers and getting them to pay for services might be a bigger roadblock. "I don't think the average consumer knows what location-based services means," Gerling says.
The good news for the industry is that people are increasingly familiar with in-vehicle and portable navigation systems. Based on its monthly online survey of 50,000 U.S. households, market researcher Synovate says about 20 percent more Americans bought a GPS system in 2005 than 2004.
Many people are comfortable using Google Maps and MapQuest. Israel's Telmap and MapQuest introduced MapQuest Navigator, a cell phone service coming this summer. Carriers have not been announced.
In a survey of more than 4,000 consumers 18 and older, the C.J. Driscoll & Associates market research firm found that about one-third of U.S. cellular subscribers expressed a strong interest in cell phone-based navigation assistance services. That was greater than their interest in cell phone-based e-mail, photos, video-downloads or live TV viewing.
More than 80 percent said they'd pay either a monthly fee for the service or on a per-transaction basis for driving directions. Social applications such as locating nearby friends and finding close bars and clubs tested well with survey participants under 35.
A Starbucks sniffer?
But LBS can also smack of Big Brother. Marketers banking on LBS have to step gingerly. "LBS is technically feasible today. It's more a matter of trust and privacy (among consumers)," says Deep Nishar, director of product management at Google, which has yet to provide a mobile LBS offering.
One scenario bandied about for years involves consumers getting text alerts on their cell phones for discounted coffee as they wander near a Starbucks. "Having a pop-up every time you pass by a store may be what advertisers want, but it's not what users want," says Dan Gilmartin, who runs consumer LBS marketing for Sprint.
Verizon Wireless Chief Operating Officer Lowell McAdam agrees: "It would annoy me to no end if every time I passed by a Starbucks, (the phone says) I got 20 cents off."
Astroleap has developed a location-based couponing system called eureka!mobile that would require consumers to actively opt in, then expressly seek out coffee (or whatever). Only then would they be notified of nearby coffeehouses and possible discounts. The San Diego company hopes to launch with major carriers in the next three to six months, says co-founder Dan Bailey.
"I do think there's a mass market opportunity for (location-based) advertising," says Astroth. "But it has to be personalized, permission-based and in the context of the activity you're participating in."
Consumers attending a baseball game might not mind receiving a downloaded ringtone of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." In another context, they'd the find the sudden arrival of such a ringtone intrusive.
For now, navigation and local search seem to be the furthest along with additional services such as traffic monitoring starting to emerge. TeleNav in Santa Clara, Calif., helps subscribers find nearby gas stations with the cheapest fuel prices.
"The big applications we expect to drive LBS adoption are those services that have already succeeded in some capacity but are enhanced and become more compelling by integrating location," says Iadarola of Frost & Sullivan.
Rod Diefendorf, a vice president at mobile search provider InfoSpace, says that eventually, consumers will be able to search beyond general categories - such as finding a seafood restaurant - to satisfy particular cravings for lobster or other menu items.
Photography is another emerging area. Digital snapshots typically capture information, including the time and date an image was taken, and the kind of camera used. Now, companies are starting to add "location stamps."
Otherwise, "one year down the road, you have no idea where those pictures were taken," says Kanwar Chadha, founder of LBS chipmaker Sirf Technology. Location-stamped pictures might also help you resolve insurance disputes, or locate all the vacation pictures you took by the Eiffel Tower.
Disney's presence and the peace of mind that comes with making sure loved ones are safe would seem to be a big driver toward ensuring LBS' success. But Allyn Hall, the director of the wireless practice at the In-Stat research firm remains skeptical: "When I call my wife and want to know where she is, I ask her," he says.
Still, Ben Starkey uses TeleNav on his Nextel cell phone to keep on top of his pregnant financee's whereabouts. "It's a comfort thing," says Starkey, a data technician in Roanoke, Va., who jokes that the phone best not be turned off or he'll be in the doghouse.
"We've been saying LBS is coming since 1999," says Sal Dhanani senior marketing director of TeleNav. "This time, it feels a little more real."
Location, location, location
Among the ways location-based services are trying to get on the map:
• SearchQuest is an LBS application designed to help real estate agents showcase houses. SearchQuest Inc. (www.searchquest.com) hopes to release the service in August.
• Austin, Texas, startup Bones in Motion (www.bonesinmotion.com) has produced a $10 a month application for Sprint called BiM Active. Runners can record the time, place, distance, calories burned and other data about a route.
• Sprint has teamed with the Luxor Las Vegas to preregister guests when they land and turn on their phones. The hotel can determine when guests are off-site and lure them back with mobile pitches.
• "Jewel Chaser" from TikGames (www.tikgames.com) is a cops and robbers game due in the United States by early next year; Loc-Aid (www.loc-aid.net) has unveiled a treasure-hunt game in trial with carriers.
• GlobalPetFinder (www.globalpetfinder.com) is an under 5-ounce, $290 (on sale) device that snaps onto your pet's collar. If Fido wanders outside the "virtual fence" you set up, you'll receive a text alert and the pet's whereabouts on your phone. Monthly monitoring fees start at $17, plus there's a one-time $35 activation charge.
• KnowledgeWhere's Mobile Pooch (www.knowledgewhere.ca), Kamida's Socialight (www.socialight.com) and Proxpro (www.proxpro.com) are applying LBS to social networking. Socialight, now in beta, lets people publish pictures, words, sound and video tagged to specific locales; you might offer your take on a tourist spot.
• Proxpro's Locate People, expected later this year, is a subscription service built around the notion that you might hold impromptu meetings with contacts (who fit certain profiles) in your area. If a sales rep you've been hoping to do business with is nearby, you could send a message indicating you would like to meet.
• Map data provider Navteq, which sponsors an annual Global LBS Challenge among developers to serve as a catalyst for the industry, received about 260 applications for its most recent competition, up from 40 or so in 2003. Companies delivered applications in navigation, entertainment and business.
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