More predictions on the market size of location-based services is coming from Gartner this time:

"Worldwide subscribers to location-based communications services on mobile devices will increase by nearly 168 per cent in 2008 while revenue will grow by 169 per cent, according to Gartner, Inc. Location-based service technologies have been around for several years but they have not experienced the rate of success that was anticipated at the beginning,” said Annette Zimmermann, a research analyst at Gartner. “The market for location-based services is at a turning point, with indications of mainstream adoption in the next two to five years.”

Now, I don't know where Gartner has been looking for the last year but the turning point was back in late 2006 when PND's took off leading to more subscribers for phone-based apps in 2007.

Gartner said the number of subscribers worldwide will rise from 16 million in 2007 to 43.2 million in 2008 and revenue will rise from $485.1 million in 2007 to $1,307.3 million in 2008. The number of subscribers is expected to reach nearly 300 million in 2011 and revenue is forecast to top $8 billion in 2011.