LOCATION BASED SERVICES FEATURE
Lost and found
wanting
With each passing year, hurdles to uptake are overcome,
yet location based services still struggle for uptake.
Nokia’s recent acquisition of Navteq has helped thrust
the subject back into the spotlight, but it also serves as a
warning to carriers that they could be cut out of the LBS
equation altogether.
By Sean Jackson
@
t sometimes feels as if the industry has “The revenue opportunities—from subscrib-
been waiting for location based services ers, third party advertisers and sponsors—for
to find success longer than it has waited the ‘mobile phone as location device’ are enor-
for anything else. Consider the developments mous,” he says, adding: “It is no surprise that
in network technology, the improvements in Nokia, and very likely Google with the gPhone,
access speed, the leaps in handset design that are stepping into the void that the traditional
have happened since first LBS was mooted as mobile network operators have so far failed
a potential winner in the mobile space. to capitalise on. Mobiles already come with
Routinely, LBS are labelled as underachiev- a hands free in-car kit as standard—so the
ing, or disappointing. As such, these measured secondary market of in-car sat nav is also
assessments describe a suite of data services ripe for exploitation by an integrated mobile-
that are not so much treading water as dipping a centric device.”
tentative toe in the pool. Still the industry waits Roberts’ comments will look familiar to
for LBS to fulfil their supposed potential. anyone who has been following the LBS
However, as Nokia’s surprise $8.1bn Octo- story from the beginning. Ovum’s director of
ber 2007 acquisition of mapping firm Navteq wireless intelligence Martin Garner paints a
proves, the LBS story is a far from over. When slightly different picture.
a firm like Nokia, which has been on the “We think that there is more to this acqui-
money more often than not when judging the sition than meets the eye,” he says. “Nokia is
industry’s direction, lays out a sum of this positioning this acquisition as a means of ac-
size, few would be prepared to write off the celerating its strategy in mapping and providing
sector’s chances altogether. some key technology aspects for realising its
“Nokia’s move demonstrates the ‘new order’ broad and ambitious vision for how mapping/
we’ve been watching develop in the mobile navigation/traffic services will evolve. This is
market,” says Hugh Roberts, senior strategist partly as a set of richly-featured services in their
at Patni Telecoms Consulting. “LBS have the own right, and partly that maps will be a core
potential to be the most compelling mobile component of other internet services.”
data proposition, but only if the offering is There is strong logic at play here. Nokia’s vi-
focused on customer usability and the hard- sion for the services is ambitious and today it
ware brand positioning is aligned. does not have all the technology pieces it needs »
Mobile Communications International | First for news, best for business 39
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48