October 13, 2006
Europes Takes to Location-Based Cell Service
Sales of software and services that let consumers find a nearby post office or the fastest route to a destination are finally starting to take off. ... Nokia's Kunz predicts that the rollout of GPS-enabled phones will happen even faster than the rollout of camera phones. Business Week reports.
"Swedish-Finnish operator TeliaSonera, now offers 10 location-based services, including Yellow Pages, weather information, route displays with voice prompts, and a "friend-finder" capability. Sweden, figures European operator revenues from location-based services will soar from $180.5 million last year to $780 million by 2010. Still, they'll only account for 1.8% of nonvoice services.
One reason consumers are more open to location-based services on mobile phones is that they have grown familiar with standalone navigation devices.
... Another development that should help kickstart the business is Global Positioning System technology (GPS). The satellite network can locate objects with an accuracy of about 30 feet, vastly increasing the accuracy and utility of location-based services. ... Non-GPS location techniques, which involve finding a user by estimating his or her distance from nearby cell towers, are usually accurate only within a range of 300 feet."
Related: - Survey. What people really want is mobile navigation
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2006/10/013810.htm
| Tweet |
