Friday, July 25. 2008

Loopt Offers New (Cheaper) Deal to Carriers

I don't exactly follow this, but here's what I understand from VentureBeat. Maybe a reader can help explain the flow of money...

(1) There's a "cost" (I guess in money?) to get the GPS location from a phone's chip. Each time to you (a developer) does it, you "pay."

(2) Loopt (one of these developers) struck a deal with Sirf and Qualcomm (they make GPS chips) for a flat fee to get the GPS data.

(3) Thus, Loopt can offer its service to the carriers more cheaply.

So says, VentureBeat:

What does this mean? Nearly every phone with a GPS chip right now will be able to use the Loopt application for a much better deal.

The carriers and handset makers still have to buy into this new plan, but you can be sure that is going to happen now that Loopt has this deal.

Comments

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The cost to use GPS on a phone is 0, at least if you're not using Snaptrack/Qualcom on CDMA where license fees and usage fees can be applicable. On the GSM phones it's absolutely free. Even a flat fee, as explained in the article from Loopt, makes the users incur cost due to smart licensing of Qualcom.

The problem with Loopt is that you have to pay for a service that only provides fun (friend finder) which is not what users expect in these Web2.0 days.

There are many free "buddy finders" out there like www-livecontacts-com which do not charge fees for use and do not spam you with adds either. Overall add driven LBS models are the one's getting the buzz, but not the $$ in revenue.

#1 Jaap Groot (Link) on 2008-08-07 02:41 (Reply)

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