The “VC Panel” (with VC and analysts) rounded out the day. The big surprise for me? To a one they identified the merger/acquistiion news (Tele Atlas, NAVTEQ) as net positive for the industry, for new players and for investors.

A Panel on the Past Year in LBS brought several panelists including reps from NIM, Ford, INRIX, Nielson Wireless (corrected; originally Neilson Mobile [sic]) and others.

Two presentations addressed ways that's happening: one by Dean Stocker explained what the new relationship between SRC and deCarta may mean. The second explored the implications of the "connected" vision Kim Fennell introduced in his keynote.

The business track offered a round up of customers: Maps.com, Networks in Motion (NIM), Loopt, Proxix and Local Matters.

I needed to get my bearings at this very technical conference and opted to sit in on the tech intro session. I got to meet fellow blogger Steven Citron-Pousty (Steve's Little World), who graciously answered my very basic questions. (He was the one who insisted the conference include robut wireless throughout. So far, it's been excellent!)

This is the third devCON, a gathering for deCarta's partners customers and others in the LBS supply chain. Kim Fennell, president and CEO started off with the question: Is location really taking off? Basically his answer is yes based on some details:

- Sale of NAVTEQ, Tele Atlas
- Convergence - must support apps on all platforms
- Expected move to connectivity (onboard PND mostly not connected, offboard (Java) not taking off - so connected is the future whether from cell network, Internet, etc. to do local search, get real time traffic, get ads)
- Traction across all sectors

• PNDs [45 million to ship by 2009]
• Internet [GAMY working to disrupt advertising, Yellow Pages trying to defend that space]
• Enterprise GIS [Business Intelligence growing, ready for disruption]
• mobile [58% of revs from apps is from LBS, North America, 90% of that is based on deCarta powered apps]
• fleet management growing [160 companies in UK alone])

We should expect new products, new markets, new partnerships/relationships, new business models. LBS, Fennel suggests is in the growth market part of the curve (out of the chasm). Geoffrey Moore (Crossing the Chasm) suggests at this stage you must:

1) Focus on your area (Example: Tiger Woods does golf, others do shoes, clubs, video games...)

DeCarta does the same thing - it does the platform. Others do: content (Tele Atlas, NAVTEQ, INRIX), APP Devs (NIM, Loopt, Telenav, Local Matters), Service Providers (Sprint, OnStar, Ask, Hotels.com, MultiMap), Consumers/Enterprises (phones, laptops)

2) Establish brand

deCarta is an OEM, so customers will be building the brand.

3) Ensure product development flexibility

deCarta is extending from server focus (Drill Down Server for Internet) to embedded solution (NavSDK).

The "futures" session is tomorrow, so expect more product details then.

[Disclosure: deCarta covered my travel and lodging for this event.]