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New research released this week claims that location-based services, or LBS, will be some of the most valuable applications in operators' repertoires, accounting for over 40 percent of data revenues in 2007, compared to practically nothing this year.
The research, complied by the ARC Group, says that top location-based consumer services will be infotainment-based and will include "where's my nearest" and "friend finder" type services. Location relevant news, sports results, weather, traffic, and community services will also be important, the report said.
With such services dominating the LBS market, ARC claims that the consumer market will generate far more revenues for operators than the business and enterprise market, although location-based business services such as field force and logistics will still contribute an estimated USD15 billion worldwide in 2007.
Location-based services were once highly touted as the next wave of mobile applications and their launch was often discussed alongside the launch of GPRS and 3G. But as the telecoms meltdown proceeded, and many so-called "next generation" technologies such as WAP and GPRS turned out to be consumer disappointments, flaunting the possibilities of LBS became passe.
ARC notes that the tough economic conditions have also contributed to a cautious approach by operators in deploying LBS and the report's author, Karen Walsh, says that the other factors have added to operators' caution in deploying new location based services; these include uncertainty surrounding user privacy, interoperability, services roaming and m-commerce security. "In the US, specific issues relating to the FCC's mandate to provide E911 wireless emergency services has caused network operators to focus on deploying high-accuracy location technologies rather than commercial LBS," ARC said.
"The cost of deploying LBS is relatively high so operators want to understand their market before introducing a wide variety of services," added Walsh. "However, consumer services are being deployed. This is especially true in Europe and Asia where operators are rolling out services as business cases merit rather than waiting for high-precision location technology to be rolled out."
Some operators, such as KDDI and NTT DoCoMo in Japan and E-Plus in Germany, are making location a core part of their strategy, the report notes, and are focusing on deploying accurate location technology and services that will differentiate them from their competitors.
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