Tuesday, April 7. 2009

Podcast: Any Game Changers in LBS Yet?

Many announcements related to location-based services came out of the CTIA show last week, including winners of the NAVTEQ LBS Challenge. Were any truly game changing? Our editors look at the current state of LBS and what may be ahead.


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Tuesday, September 16. 2008

Podcast: Three LBS Events, One Takeaway: One Device for Work and Play

Editor in Chief Joe Francica ran the LBS gauntlet last week by attending NAVTEQ Connections, CTIA and the SiRF Location 2.0 Summit. The big takeaway is the power of a single device to manage one business and personal life on a single location-enabled device. In the last year, Francica explains, LBS has become part of the enterprise. He and Executive Editor Adena Schutzberg explore the changes that have come with this growth.

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Thursday, September 11. 2008

Location-based Advertising: Still Nascient and a Note of Caution

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.

Wednesday, April 2. 2008

NAVTEQ LBS Challenge Winners Announced at CTIA 2008

Jeff Mize from NAVTEQ announced the winners of the Global LBS Challenge at CTIA 2008 (Other NAVTEQ Challenges were held at the Mobile World Congress and past CTIAs; CommunicAsia (Singapore) will host an Asia/Pac LBS Challenge). Watch the replay of the awards.

Rob Taylor, Director of Forum Nokia, a group within Nokia that is responsible for promoting applications and new innovation, noted how well run the LBS Challenge is conducted. Nokia commissioned study that revealed that 6 out of 9 applications that they supported recently had a location component. N95 devices are selling incredibly well, too.

Semi-finalists:
America's Emergency Network; Gamepark; Duzine (Sportstalk); heywhatsthat (POI data); Proxido by Holloware; Phonetag by Knowledgewhere; Taxistop by Medianet (Taxi finder); Wildlab by Mediated Spaces; POI Cruiser by SearchQuest; Spotjots by ten23 (social networking app); Trapster.com (speed trap alert system); Twipster (travelers can share vaction experiences); Urban Mapping; MizPee by Yojo; Zoom by Zoospi.

...And the Winners:
Third Runner up: America's Emergency Network for their mobile alerts application.

Second Runner up: heywhatsthat

First Runner up: Mediated Spaces Wildlab

Grand Prize Winner: ten23 with Spotjots

NAVTEQ LBS Challenge Notes

George Filley of NAVTEQ notes the following facts in his opening statements at the LBS Challenge in Las Vegas at CTIA to provide a view of the current LBS marketplace:

• Surpassed 10 million milestone in downloads of LBS services
• Carriers are getting into the game
• CDMA devices are 94% GPS-enabled; GSM devices are getting there
• Applications for mobile navigation is going below $9/month.
• Critical mass momentum around open access and potential it holds for developers
• Applications are reflecting the livestyles of consumers
• Only 3% of LBS subscribers only using LBS applications but growth will be driven by carriers that must increase the marketing they are doing and including LBS as a portfolio of serivces that they offer.
• LBS must see continued innovation

Wednesday, October 24. 2007

More on Microsoft's Strategy for Mobility

As you would expect, the CTIA keynote delivered by Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, focused on his company’s solutions to the world of wireless technology. He never explicitly mentioned location technology or LBS but his presentation was rife with how mobile lifestyles will rely on understanding location as the context in which information will be exchanged with the user. He said that consumers will want phones that span all of their life personas: Life with family, life with friends, and life with co-workers.

Ballmer explained in broad terms how Microsoft views itself with respect to its customers: Enterprise Computing, Personal Lifestyle, and Platforms.

In enterprise computing…
Ballmer wants to see enterprise computing brought to the phone. Text messaging, instant, messaging, and more…all brought to the phone. He asked, “How do we make sure the software works well on the networks we have today?” And in talking about global application delivery, Ballmer acknowledged that PC and the Internet are not as ubiquitous. “In many countries, the phone will be the PC,” he said.

In terms of mobility in the workplace requirements Ballmer said that workers need to communicate with partners, vendors and customers in whom business is transacted by voice and email. In addition, they must communicate with business processes and access corporate information and that access to corporate business applications will help them succeed. “IT needs to secure these devices and make sure they integrate with other resources of the company,” said Ballmer.

He also made the announcement of a new service as part of Microsoft System Center: Mobile Device Manager 2008. Mobile Device Manager provides secure access for phones that are on the go. It will work with forthcoming Windows Mobile devices. It is a management service the IT department can use and manage many mobile devices as well as mission critical data on the PC and help them to manage mobile devices like TV; mobile VPN capabilities and others. Ballmer said it will adhere to standards from Open Mobile Alliance.

Personal Lifestyle…
Ballmer sees that Microsoft must offer software that meets personal lifestyles. Some may want a choice of media and entertainment; others will want to be able to connect to social networks. He wants his customers to be able to integrate mobile devices with MS Messaging, share photos, or blog on Windows Live Spaces in addition to using voice. He also said that, “the phone is almost like the personal remote control…for your life.” He gave an example of using a mobile device to emulate the controls on Windows Media Center that would enable the user to set the recording settings remotely from the phone back to a PC at home that controls a TiVo.

Platforms…
Ballmer said that, “The other thing that the industry needs is a rich platform to support a rich lifestyle on the phone…And we need applications that create demand for the devices. We need to focus in on the work scenarios and the home scenarios to fuel this expansion."

Microsoft wants to invest in platforms that enable applications to run which means that they will develop rich APIs. They want to try to maintain a very consistent platform to carry off high-levels of service. Ballmer sees Windows Mobile as a platform that will be critical in bringing all elements together.