Location-based services seem to encompass consumer applications that generate plenty of excitement among consumers, yet somehow, uptake of LBS applications is not exactly booming-except in cars.
Cell-phone users in the United States have been slow to adopt mapping and tracking services, but drivers are eating up the ability to get directions to specific destinations as well as more general information about their surroundings, such as listings of nearby dining, movies and restaurants.
Japanese cell-phone users are another story, much to the delight of GeoVector, whose Identification-engine technology is in use by droves of Japanese wireless subscribers after 12 long years of development by the San Francisco-based company.
GVID is a search service that uses network-aided GPS capabilities and an electronic compass embedded in mobile handsets to enable users to point the phone at nearly 1 million landmarks in Japan and receive information about the landmark.
Users can also find out about service offerings inside buildings, or services in the general direction they are pointing the device at.
The GeoVector service limits search results based on the data it receives, turning a search with a potentially long and, therefore, tedious list of results into a more manageable proposition for mobile users. Due in part to the network-aided GPS function, enabled by Qualcomm Inc.’s SnapTrack technology, the GVID can locate an individual’s position to within 10 meters. As long as the handset has GPS and a compass, GeoVector’s offering works independently of the types of hardware involved; network speeds can enhance the experience but 3G speeds are not essential.
GVID is up and running on Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P.’s W21S handsets using KDDI Corp.’s network in Japan, and the company says it’s poised to expand the technology to other markets.
“We’re pretty confident that within a few years every phone manufactured worldwide will have position and pointing capabilities,” said Peter Ellenby, co-founder and director of new media, patent development and marketing at GeoVector. “Pointing your phone will be second nature, just like turning on your computer and clicking with your mouse.”
The company said that it expects other Japanese carriers to launch GVID by the end of the year, and deals are in the works for launches in Europe, Korea, New Zealand and the United States.
It’s no surprise that cell phones packed with LBS applications such as GVID are popular in Tokyo, as the city’s dwellers tend to walk and use public transportation with regularity in one of the world’s most navigationally challenging urban landscape, said Julie Ask, senior analyst at Jupiter Research. In addition, the wireless industry has always found that Japan’s culture lends itself to early adoption of new technologies.
However, Ask points out that U.S. consumers are still not clamoring for LBS services in droves.
“Everybody agrees that wireless mapping technology is phenomenal, but putting all the excitement aside, we haven’t seen great demand from consumers yet,” Ask said. “People say they don’t need the applications, they say they would only need them for emergencies. To convince consumers to buy LBS services, companies need to create context, explain how they could use it everyday for traffic and weather.”
RCR Wireless News reporter Phil Carson contributed to this story.
