At CTIA in San Francisco...

During a panel session on location-based advertising, Isaias Sudit,CEO LOC-AID Technologies cautioned that a new ad unit is needed before more adoption can occure. "I still think that mobile advertising is still nacient. My big concern is still CPC (cost per click)…and it doesn’t work very well on the mobile advertising side. There is this notion that we need to start thinking about a new ad unit that doesn’t mimic the wired world. If we don’t move on this, the only winners are going to be the big internet houses," refering to Google and Microsoft. "Mobile ad space should sit down and figure out how that ecosystems is going to work out and the location guys will help," said Sudit.

A new ad unit that isn't CPC. Let that sink in a minute because everything we thought about in terms of internet advertising will change. I think what Sudit was suggesting was that location needs to be factored into the cost equation.

But Sam Altman, CEO of loopt, cautioned that, "Sending an SMS to a mobile device when you walk within a certain distance of a coffee shop, did not work." Altman believes that to focus on the small "mom and pop" retailers is necessary. "But they aren’t used to buying those types of ads," he warned, suggesting that much education needs to be done to secure money from a business that is more used to buying Yellow Page ads rather than mobile, location-based ads.

Darren Koenig of Tele Atlas suggested that when you are able to targeting at a defined level of location the smaller mom and pop can begin to compete.

Kanwar Chadha, chief marketing officer and founder of SiRF Technologies, opened his Location 2.0 Summit by giving a report card of LBS since last year's event. What's changed?

1. Nokia has adopted location as a major driver; they've taken a leadership position in the cellular and location. the company received the "Leadership" Award from Chadha at the close of the conference.
2. In the cellular space, all major carriers are taking a look into location as core element of their service. It's no longer just an afterthought.
3. Consumers or developers no longer have to "kluge" together many different devices to get location-based information. Many devices already or will soon have location-aware components embedded in them.
4. Education of the marketplace. We don’t have to explain to people anymore about what GPS does.

An integral part of Sprint Nextel's WiMAX initiative, as we previously covered in APB, will be location. Barry West, president of the company's XOHM business unit, said that, "XOHM is based on an ultra-fast and secure access service. It will have location and presence." In differentiating XOHM from other wireless services West said that the customer is at the center of our experience. "What makes the cellular industry such a poor experience? Reason – the cost of the device requires a subsidy...[We] need to change the paradigm from having a contract to being able to come and go as you please. As we move to the next generation is to make sure we break that subsidy paradigm. We shouldn’t charge you per device but charge you per person."

The description of XOHM's "geobrowsing" is not much different than what you expect from other location-relevant services for consumers. It will have access to local weather, events, etc. But West was looking long term to when "all" electronic devices have a WiMAX chip embedded in them...anything from washing machines, thermostats and toasters to cars and other mobile devices. West said that, "[the] ebedded ecosystem is based on having low cost WiMax chips...in the range of $3 to $15 dollars in a few years. When you get into that price range, then the BOM becomes affordable."