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Where in the world am I? Your phone might know
Posted 6/1/2006 9:41 PM ET
By Edward C. Baig, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — Jacqui Fahrnow used to worry when she couldn't reach her
teenage boys on the cellphone.
"My oldest son wouldn't answer because he was playing basketball and
left the phone in his duffle bag," says Fahrnow, a single mom in
Shawnee, Kan. "It was a point of contention."
Now, Fahrnow has signed up for Sprint Family Locator by WaveMarket, a
wireless location-based service — or LBS — launched in April by Sprint
Nextel. From her own cellphone or the Web, Fahrnow can track the
whereabouts of her kids' cellphone in real time on an interactive map,
without them having to take a call.
The $10-a-month Sprint service, and most other emerging LBS technologies
that work on wireless phones, use the same Global Positioning System
satellites that keep car navigation systems on course. Fahrnow says
Family Locator has been accurate within 11 yards.
Since the late '90s, LBS has been linked to a host of intriguing, yet
somehow not-quite-ready-for prime time, mobile scenarios involving local
search and advertising, gaming, dating and perhaps most promising,
safety and security.
Yet, despite mounds of hype, few companies rolled out services, and LBS
has mostly been lost on regular consumers. LBS is the killer application
"that got killed on the way to mainstream," says Joe Astroth, vice
president of the Location-Based Services division at Autodesk, which
provides the technology to wireless phone carriers.
Now, there's evidence that LBS might have a pulse with the masses, after
all. Market researcher Frost & Sullivan forecasts the total LBS market
in the USA to exceed $600 million in 2008, up from about $90 million at
the end of 2005. "There seems to be a fair level of commitment to the
technology now, giving a big sigh of relief that it is finally
happening," says Ken Hyers, an analyst at ABI Research.
Several services recently made their debut or are coming soon. A sampling:
•When it arrives this month, Disney Mobile-branded phone service will
include a family finder capability akin to what Sprint is offering.
Verizon Wireless is about to launch a service called Chaperone. For $20
a month, parents can establish a virtual fence around a child's school
during set hours and receive a text message when a kid goes outside the
boundary. Similarly, Wherify Wireless is planning to peddle a locator
phone in the back-to-school timeframe.
•Verizon's Networks in Motion VZ Navigator service transforms certain LG
or Motorola phones into portable navigation systems for $10 a month, or
$3 for a day. The phone tells you where you are and which restaurants,
hotels and shops are nearby, and provides turn-by-turn directions to get
you to those destinations. Sprint offers a similar navigation service
through TeleNav.
•Sprint and InfoSpace recently launched a $3-a-month subscription-based
LBS search engine, InfoSpace FindIt, that lets you find local businesses
and services, and click to call them without dialing the number.
There are a raft of other offerings, from friend and pet finders to
lifestyle applications. In business, LBS has been used for managing
fleets and tracking mobile workers. Researcher In-Stat predicts growth
on the business side from 582,000 to 1.1 million subscribed devices by
the end of 2010.
Tech tools in place
Why now? For one thing, the technological infrastructure is largely in
place. Wireless carrier networks are faster and more robust. More phones
have decent color screens and extra horsepower to run LBS applications.
What's more, many cellphones, mostly those that work with Sprint Nextel
and Verizon networks, now incorporate GPS chips, partly as a response by
carriers to a government-mandated Enhanced 911 program that was phased
in at the end of last year. Uncle Sam wanted emergency workers to find
folks who dial 911 from their cells.
(Other companies met the E911 mandate through "triangulation" methods
that measure the time it takes signals to bounce off cell towers, or the
angle of those signals.)
Brent Iadarola, industry research manager at Frost & Sullivan, expects
the LBS market to get an additional boost in a couple of years when
carriers such as Cingular Wireless and T-Mobile add GPS capabilities.
Once companies know where a handset is, they can construct applications
that build on that knowledge. "If you're traveling on the interstate,
you don't (necessarily) want to find the nearest gas station if it's by
the exit you just passed," says Mike Gerling, president of map provider
TeleAtlas North America. "You want to find the next one."
Having the proper technology in place is only half the battle. Reaching
consumers and getting them to pay for services might be a bigger
roadblock. "I don't think the average consumer knows what location-based
services means," Gerling says.
The good news for the industry is that people are increasingly familiar
with in-vehicle and portable navigation systems. Based on its monthly
online survey of 50,000 U.S. households, market researcher Synovate says
about 20% more Americans bought a GPS system in 2005 than 2004.
Many people are comfortable using Google Maps and MapQuest. Israel's
Telmap and MapQuest introduced MapQuest Navigator, a cellphone service
coming this summer. Carriers have not been announced.
In a survey of more than 4,000 consumers 18 and older, the C.J. Driscoll
& Associates market research firm found that about one-third of U.S.
cellular subscribers expressed a strong interest in cellphone-based
navigation assistance services. That was greater than their interest in
cellphone-based e-mail, photos, video-downloads or live TV viewing.
More than 80% said they'd pay either a monthly fee for the service or on
a per-transaction basis for driving directions. Social applications such
as locating nearby friends and finding close bars and clubs tested well
with survey participants under 35.
A Starbucks sniffer?
But LBS can also smack of Big Brother. Marketers banking on LBS have to
step gingerly. "LBS is technically feasible today. It's more a matter of
trust and privacy (among consumers)," says Deep Nishar, director of
product management at Google, which has yet to provide a mobile LBS
offering.
One scenario bandied about for years involves consumers getting text
alerts on their cellphones for discounted coffee as they wander near a
Starbucks. "Having a pop-up every time you pass by a store may be what
advertisers want, but it's not what users want," says Dan Gilmartin, who
runs consumer LBS marketing for Sprint.
Verizon Wireless COO Lowell McAdam agrees: "It would annoy me to no end
if every time I passed by a Starbucks, (the phone says) I got 20 cents off."
AstroLeap has developed a location-based couponing system called Eureka
Mobile that would require consumers to actively opt in, then expressly
seek out coffee (or whatever). Only then would they be notified of
nearby coffeehouses and possible discounts. The San Diego company hopes
to launch with major carriers in the next three to six months, says
co-founder Dan Bailey.
"I do think there's a mass-market opportunity for (location-based)
advertising," says Astroth. "But it has to be personalized,
permission-based and in the context of the activity you're participating
in."
Consumers attending a baseball game might not mind receiving a
downloaded ring tone of Take Me Out to the Ballgame. In another context,
they'd the find the sudden arrival of such a ring tone intrusive.
For now, navigation and local search seem to be the furthest along with
additional services such as traffic monitoring starting to emerge.
TeleNav in Santa Clara, Calif., helps subscribers find nearby gas
stations with the cheapest fuel prices.
"The big applications we expect to drive LBS adoption are those services
that have already succeeded in some capacity but are enhanced and become
more compelling by integrating location," says Iadarola of Frost & Sullivan.
Rod Diefendorf, a vice president at mobile search provider InfoSpace,
says that eventually, consumers will be able to search beyond general
categories — such as finding a seafood restaurant — to satisfy
particular cravings for lobster or other menu items.
Photography is another emerging area. Digital snapshots typically
capture information, including the time and date an image was taken, and
the kind of camera used. Now, companies are starting to add "location
stamps."
Otherwise, "one year down the road, you have no idea where those
pictures were taken," says Kanwar Chadha, founder of LBS chipmaker SIRF
Technology. Location-stamped pictures might also help you resolve
insurance disputes, or locate all the vacation pictures you took by the
Eiffel Tower.
Disney's presence and the peace of mind that comes with making sure
loved ones are safe would seem to be a big driver toward ensuring LBS'
success. But Allyn Hall, the director of the wireless practice at the
In-Stat research firm remains skeptical: "When I call my wife and want
to know where she is, I ask her," he says.
Still, Ben Starkey uses TeleNav on his Nextel cellphone to keep on top
of his pregnant financée's whereabouts. "It's a comfort thing," says
Starkey, a data technician in Roanoke, Va., who jokes that the phone
best not be turned off or he'll be in the doghouse.
"We've been saying LBS is coming since 1999," says Sal Dhanani, senior
marketing director of TeleNav. "This time, it feels a little more real."
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