LBS: A hit with subscribers

Growth Drivers
Various technology applications are driving this industry. There are some compelling applications that are helping this segment grow.

Says Debasis Chatterji, CEO, Netxcell, "Navigation and family safety solutions are the major applications that are driving the LBS market. Besides this, the growing number of application stores and availability of GPS enabled mobile phones are few factors that are contributing towards the growth of this industry."

Technological innovation has led to the improvement of GPS technology; and thus, the accuracy and reliability of GPS systems. Positioning systems are moving towards hybrid location technologies to offer greater accuracy levels. Hybrid solutions combine assisted GPS with other location positioning technologies to offer more accurate positioning information. Since LBS require accurate positioning information, like turn-by-turn navigation and family safety solutions, the improvement in GPS technology is driving the growth of LBS in America.

Despite the high growth rate, privacy concerns and aging GPS infrastructure are certain issues that need to be resolved to keep the industry in its high growth trajectory.

Yogesh Bijlani, country head and GM, APAC, Telenity says, "The fact that today a bouquet of services are available that leverage the location of the mobile to a 300 meter level of accuracy and are enabled by dialing a short code opens a new growth avenue for VAS."

Awareness is the Key
The biggest challenge currently is the awareness about the availability of these services and the marketing push that is needed to make customers know of the wide variety of LBS that is available.

Says Bijlani, "In today's scenario where every operator has hundreds of value added services available, there is limited bandwidth to educate the market about the new innovative services offering even though the subscribers are delighted by the utility offering."

Kasturi Bhattacharjee, associate director, advisory, infocomm practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers says, "Lack of reliable GIS data, limited need of consumers, cost of devices, GPS/GPRS enablement and cost barrier, lack of privacy are some of the barriers that are impeding the growth of the LBS."

The LBS Menu

New flavor of innovative applications that suit all type of users- enterprise, entertainment, community, etc-constituting LBS. Information specific to the need of the user helps answer any and all queries which have location as dimension. For instance:
Rural end users obtain weather related data, answers to location dependent agriculture related queries, access to agro campaigns, all through a mobile application.
Enterprise end users utilize fleet management services to keep track of their resources, acquire convenient travel routes based on current location with a click.
Entertainment takes a whole new dimension with services such as location based advertising, mobile gaming, instant access to data and location related discounts.
Advertisers can manage campaigns and target customers based on their location. This arms the advertisers with the power of perception and instant connection with their exact target markets, making advertising more targeted than it has ever been. The customers also reap the benefits with instant and relevant ad campaigns which they receive on their mobiles.

Another barrier which is also an obstruction is best outlined by Chatterji, "One of the big obstruction is the wide availability of universal addresses."

Evolution
With the rise in GPS shipments, mobile operators will realize the potential behind expanding their LBS scope to reach the mass market. Operators will need to focus on creating a more advanced mobile location experience for the mass market whilst still investing efforts in rolling out innovative services for the high-end device market.

Although a number of channels are available to content providers and developers to reach end users (eg, app stores), basic economic laws still apply; content providers and developers still need to invest significant resources in building brand and marketing power, which remains a challenge for now. This leaves the operators with the upper hand to win in the LBS marketplace.

This year will also see the tipping point for enterprise LBS. As devices and networks strengthen and mature, the market will come to realize that the industry is now ready to support and benefit from providing location capabilities for enterprise uses.

As of now, the stage is all set for the the LBS to take off.

Archana Singh
archanasi@cybermedia.co.in

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