Location-based Services Trends 2009
We believe that there is a perfect storm brewing that will cause location-based services to take off in a big way in 2009 and 2010. It has already taken off in the portable navigation device (PND), but now it will happen on your mobile smartphone.
What are location-based services? The best known example would be your Garmin or TomTom driving navigation. But that’s a very basic example. LBS can include things like Buddy Beacon where you can track where your friends are, locating someone for emergency 911 response, finding what are the best restaurants near you, etc.
Here are some recent events brewing up the big storm:
- Mature PND Market. The portable navigation device (PND) market is mature. In 2008, 50 million units were shipped.
- PND Makers Need New Revenue Streams. Since the PND market is mature, consolidations are happening, and margins are now razor-thin. PND makers are proactively trying to apply their technologies to increase their revenue stream from other sources. The Garmin nuviFone is a prime example.
- Users Understand LBS. Location-based services are gaining customer acceptance in the market, with services like the VZNavigator and a slew of location-based apps on the iPhone.
- Location Technology Development. Whereas traditional GPS chips require a long first time-to-lock on the position, Assisted GPS (A-GPS) uses cell towers for triangulation to shorten lock times. This translates to a much better user experience.
- GPS Chips are Cheap. The mature PND market has driven GPS chips down. Today, a GPS chip can be added to a smartphone for less than $1 USD. Practically very smartphone shipped in 2009 will have built-in GPS or A-GPS.
- Astounding Smartphone Growth. Mobile phones are getting more sophisticated and can now access the web with very reasonable user experience. While the overall mobile phone market grew only by 11% in 2007, the smartphone segment grew by over 50%. It’s the new frontier for every major company to compete for advertising dollars as there will be more smartphones in use than PCs and laptops combined.
So what does this all mean? It means we will see an acceleration of innovation on both hardware and software. I will be specifically on the look out for these innovations at CES this week.
- J.
January 7th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Thanks for the great blog post! We agree completely, which is why zhiing launched it’s incredible location finding service app. The app can be downloaded to web browsers and smart-phones, where users can send themselves or their friends turn by turn directions with just a few clicks.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Taymar, I went to zhiing.com briefly and looked at some of the material on your website. Your products look promising.
The iPhone is a great location-based service platform, except it currently doesn’t allow apps to run in the background which is important for many location-aware apps.
I’d love to review your product at some point. However, I am currently in Las Vegas attending CES. Perhaps we can connect at a later time.
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:10 pm
[...] may know, that we here at SkratchBoard.com, are big believers of location-based services and applications. Wired magazine seems to agree with us. The cover of the Feb. 09 issue of Wired magazine is [...]