OYSTER BAY, N.Y.-The long-awaited market for wireless location-based services may finally be around the corner, according to two analyst reports this week.
Citing Sprint PCS’ recent introduction of an operator-assisted direction-finding service, ABI Research said operators’ efforts to push LBS will rapidly change the market through 2006. While federal enhanced 911 mandates will help spur deployment of LBS in the United States, European carriers have also begun to launch such services, and Asian operators are building on their LBS offerings.
Such services will bolster other wireless applications, including gaming, short message service and multimedia messaging service, according to ABI.
“When it comes to LBS, we’ve moved quickly from a walking pace to a run,” said Kenneth Hyers, ABI Research’s principal analyst of global wireless services. “As we forecast last year, GPS-an essential element for LBS-is starting to be included in GSM and W-CDMA handsets as well as CDMA.”
Earlier this week, industry analyst Andrew Seybold said LBS will begin to expand from corporate users to consumers this year. Operators have generally solved most of the technical issues regarding location services, Seybold said, and will expand their offerings this year from corporate accounts to general business users as well as consumers.
“For anyone who doesn’t believe LBS will be big here and in other parts of the world, you should know that Microsoft and others are devoting a lot of time and resources to providing great LBS applications and add-ins,” wrote Seybold. “On the BREW and Java sides of the house, interesting applications are coming soon. The technology is in place and it only makes sense to capitalize on it with a set of robust services.”
