LBS Tidbits - 6/14/11

EarthSearch (ECDC), and integrator of RFID and GPS solutions, is currently exploring the development of a number of social networking and mobile applications, under a new division, with a specific focus on GPS utilization.

Very late to the game and nothing in the article suggests anything new.

- Wall Street Newscast

Navigon announced new POI datasets sourced from OpenStreetMap for Europe. The five layers (health, food and drink, etc.) run a few Euros each or all can be had for 9.99 Euros.

- GPS Biz News

Days after Google announced it has started its effort to introduce 3-D 'walk through' maps for Indian cities, it's biggest competitor in India - MapmyIndia.com - has opened up its fine-grained map to the public for free.

- Real Time News India

ABI Research on “Smart Cities” Clusters Location-enabled technologies

The market research firm ABI Research has packaged a series of reports called "Smart Cities Research Cluster" that gather intelligence on the market size for a variety of location-enabled applications. These applications include

• Fleet Management
• Public Safety
• Smart Meters for Smart Grids
• Traffic Information Systems
• Intelligent Transportation Systems
• Wireless Sensor Networks

...and several more. It’s worth looking into if you have to look at the potential for each segment.

Podcast: Hybrid Positioning and Your Future

Hybrid positioning refers to handsets that use GPS and another technology to determine the device’s location. Such solutions use Wi-Fi access points, cell towers, TV towers and their related signals, RFID, Bluetooth as a companion for when GPS is not enough. A recent report suggest growing use of hybrid solutions. What might your future and that of geospatial marketplace look like as these solutions proliferate? Our editors share some scenarios and point out gaps in the existing infrastructure, i.e., places to make money.

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Hybrid Positioning Market Prediction

In a press release I must have missed from last week but which I think is significant, ABI Research offered predictions on the market potential of hybrid positioning systems. That is, when one form of position determination is not available, others must be available on the same handset. Dominique Bonte, ABI’s principal analyst for telematics and navigation (see my podcast interview with him from last August on LBS) states that, "Users expect a seamless and transparent location experience regardless of application or environment…Since no single positioning technology can provide this, the future will be about hybrid positioning systems, combining A-GPS, Cell-ID, Wi-Fi, cellular, motion sensors, and even TV broadcast and proximity technologies such as Bluetooth, NFC and RFID. A-GPS, Wi-Fi and Cell-ID will be the winning combination offering accuracy, availability, interoperability and short fix times at low cost. It will represent 25% of all positioning solutions by 2014. Stand-alone Cell-ID and/or Wi-Fi will remain important in regions with low GPS handset penetration."

So, here are a few questions:

1. What’s the size of the handset or chip set that must be equipped with all of these various positioning options?

2. Will there eventually be a nationwide network of just one or two technologies that win out over the long term?

Podcast: Why is it so Hard to Sell Geospatial Technology to the Enterprise?

Senior executives from leading technology companies, speaking at our Location Intelligence Conference last week shared that the entire value proposition for spatial enablement is a “push” to the market rather than a “pull” or demand for the technology. Our editors ask: Are we doing an adequate job of selling the technology to more of the people that will eventually implement geospatial tools with other IT solutions.?Why is it still so hard? What are we not doing well? Will it take another “Google Earth” to push the technology deeper into corporate computing or a new crop of graduates to be more geospatially enlightened?

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Listen Now (to download, right click on the link at left and choose "save target as")

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Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here’s the index with all the info.