The mobile phone industry is set for a shakedown in 2007. IMS Research predicts that 300 million devices will be GPS-enabled by 2010. As more GPS chipsets become embedded in mobile phones, the growth of applications and services to offer the benefits of location to consumers are rapidly on the increase. 2007 promises to mark the dawn of compelling Location Based Services on mobile phones.Wow! How does that impact those new European satellite systems, I wonder? Article here.
Hutchison Telecoms has revealed plans to launch a mobile internet voice service with Skype in a deal that will undercut mobile service revenues. The carrier's 3 mobile division will be the first to introduce Australian consumers and business users to a mobile -enabled version of Skype's free voice and over internet protocol (VoIP) softwareI'm not sure why Mark Jones says that " Skype's mobile service, first launched overseas in November (2006)", as I am aware of it having been successfully deployed in Hong Kong since March 2005, perhaps he means first to go native to 3 mobiles? Was it middleware before - OTA and/or bluetooth?? Ah well, irrelevant. Soooo, anyway, what are the implications for the Australian telco market?
The strategy poses a direct challenge to Australian carriers including Telstra, Optus and even partner Hutchison as mobile phone users will be able to reduce the number of calls made over existing voice networks.What does this do to FMC or FMT or whatever its called?
Despite deals with Google and Yahoo, mobile phone operators want to create their own search engine, ensuring more of the advertising revenue flows to operators rather than the established search engines.You can comment on the original article here at ITWire, if you like. My take is that someone told Telcos that search was the next big thing and they thought it meant that THEY needed to create a search engine. Hint guys, its not the engine thats the next big thing... One small gripe - with all the services that come with location based services, why is it spam advertising that comes out in the same breath as LBS? There are other ways of making an income from LBS y'know.
At the upcoming 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, a yearly conference put on by most of the world’s major mobile/cell phone operators, a new initiative is planned – a mobile operator search engine to compete with Google and Yahoo.Given the mobile phone operators’ propensity to try and fence users into a walled-garden of content, questions are arising as to how good this idea really is, especially in an age where no-one seems to be able to outsearch Google – not even Microsoft after years of trying.
However the aim is to make money – a powerful motivator in times of declining revenue from voice minutes, in the face of competition from the likes of Skype and other VoIP providers.
In recent times, mobile operators seem to be trying everything and anything to make money, from mobile TV services, music download services and more realistic (cheaper!) roaming plans, as operator 3 mobile has undertaken with its ‘3 like home’ service, guaranteeing the same call rates as home when overseas, and when on a network also owned by 3 mobile.
Operators said to be in on the deal include 3 mobile (Hutchison Whampoa), Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Telefonica, Telecom Italia and Cingular, amongst others.
If mobile operators can successfully create their own search engine, and tie it into location based services that ‘know’ where you are based on which mobile phone tower you are currently connected to, the dream of location based search and advertising becomes more real.
However this is already happening with ‘local’ search services from Google and Yahoo, and in countries like Australia where the major telco, Telstra, has their own search engine called ‘Sensis’ that is already heavily engaged in promoting localized search, both on PCs and on mobile phones that Telstra offers.
There is also the question of if the service is needed, if Apple’s plans to offer a real web browser in a phone come to fruition. Why stumble around with an underpowered mobile phone search engine when you can just go to Google direct?
After all, anyone using Microsoft’s Windows Live Search knows that while it has improved, it’s still no match for Google. Will the phone operators succumb to the same fate? Only time will tell, but unless their results can outdo Google, the search for mobile search success will likely continue for some time yet, and will consume untold millions of dollars in an age where what consumers really want is a dropout free mobile voice experience – with voice calling surely still the no.1 killer app for mobile cell phones!
Genasys LBS know-how helps Friends to Find Friends in AustraliaLast month saw Australian mobile operator Optus launch Friend FindA, the latest in its line of FindA location based services. In this project, Genasys carried out the role of integrator, connecting the application to key operator systems and safeguarding the function of user privacy processes.
Friend FindA allows friends to find each other quickly and easily using their mobile phone*. Privacy is ensured through the requirement for mutual consent and the ability of users to make themselves “invisible” at any time. After a promotional period (ending September 30) during which the service is free, the application will be available on a per request and subscription basis.
The application itself was built using an existing application by Genasys partner Trackwell, who modified and extended it to provide the specific features set forth by Optus.
Friend FindA was integrated with several critical operator systems such as the location server, map provisioning system, SMS channel and the OptusZoo portal.
“We’re pleased with the results of the project and with Optus’ clear commitment to promotion among its subscriber base”, observes Miguel Castro, Genasys Asia and Pacific Sales Manager. “They are using all of their main channels of communication to promote the new service and we expect very positive results from their campaign.”
Having long been active as the middleware and ASP links in the LBS value chain, Genasys has made a commitment to the development and promotion of new location-based services, both with mobile operators and as a developer and ASP for third parties. “This is the first project of many we expect to be delivering in the coming months and into 2007. It is our position that LBS hasn’t nearly reached its potential and we’re focussing our efforts on making it happen.“ Mr. Castro comments.
For more information about the Friend FindA application, go to the OptusZoo portal: www.optus.com.au/zoo/friendfinda
Digital media players do the numbers on mobilesBeats the heck outta me why the newsfeeds still have the journo's work email address. Sometimes it comes with their desk phone, mobile phone, cubicle number and pants size too!
Michael Sainsbury
JANUARY 22, 2007
AH, the humble mobile phone. How far it has come in such a short time from its days as a lumbering in-car contraption that could drain the battery of a Rolls-Royce.
Most handsets these days are all-singing, all-dancing gadgets that fit snugly in your pocket.
Armed with increasingly good digital cameras, MP3 music players, email and shrunk-down versions of personal computer software, mobiles are fast emerging as the next major media platform.
At least that is what telecommunications and media companies are placing their bets on.
After stumbling a number of times over more than half a decade in their bid to provide rich content services on phones, mobiles companies are finally getting it right -- although Australia still lags Europe, the mobile market with which we have most in common, by a year or two.
A number of critical things have fallen into place.
Perhaps most fundamental is that third-generation networks are now fast enough for people to access content without getting fed up. The latest 3G upgrade, a mouthful known as HSDPA, is a real improvement, with much faster speeds promised by networks over the next few years.
Consumers, who are getting increasingly used to much faster fixed-line broadband speed, simply won't put up with slow and clunky mobile service.
Operators, led by Hutchison's 3 Mobile, are better finessing their charging model.
And pricing, the bane of any service attempting mass market acceptance, has been falling, although still not far enough in many cases.
But despite their best efforts and a renewed push by market gorilla Telstra, take-up of mobile content services has been far slower than most had hoped.
One reason is that mobile content/services/internet -- whatever you want to call it -- has primarily been driven by the telcos who win the network and bill the customers. Network and engineer-driven telcos have struggled to understand content.
But this is all starting to change.
Here lies the most important shift that is starting to emerge: digital media players such as Ninemsn, Yahoo7, The Australian's publisher News, Fairfax Media and the raft of smaller players are getting active in mobiles.
Through the Australian Interactive Multimedia Industry Association they are planning a consumer "mobile content education campaign" to show people there is something worthwhile at the end of the rainbow.
This type of education is far from altruistic; it's more about advertisers finding the rainbow's pot of gold.
For what started out as a nice-to-have add-on to voice services is fast becoming an imperative for the fast-changing telecommunications industry and a media industry being forced through rapid change as the internet starts to erode revenues and margins for traditional media.
Basically, mobile is a rolled gold opportunity that none of them can afford to stuff up. The mobile is perhaps where we are seeing the truest expression of that most over- used of terms: "convergence".
So with many of the hurdles -- apart from pesky demand -- cleared, content providers are starting to ask that most basic question: where's the business model? If you look at "3" which has more of its customers paying more each month for non-SMS content than its rivals, a small monthly subscription fee of between $1 and $5 for a growing range of content packages -- news, movies, chat, sport, etc -- appears to be working best.
But while that is working, the spectre and opportunity of advertising on mobiles is looming fast.
Spoon fed on years of free-to-air television and now with the myriad free content options available on the internet, consumers remain reticent to pay for electronic content, or at least reticent about paying too much. In Australia, the remarkable resistance to the charms of pay-TV only bolsters this.
So it is logical that we will increasingly see more advertising on phones.
Chris Noone, who runs the mobile side of Ninemsn, Australia's most popular consumer portal, believes 2007 is the year mobile advertising will start to make its mark.
"Last year it was mainly hype; this year it is happening."
Noone also says that opportunities will multiply as operators bring down the mobile "walled gardens" that force customers to only access content on the operator's portal. This only works for so long, as AOL found out on the fixed-line internet to its, and its shareholders, chagrin.
Advertising is also a perfect match for location-based services that mobiles can provide by identifying the location of a user through triangulation of GPS technology.
Still, advertisements that work on TV or the internet banner ads and pop-ups will not, in most cases, work on mobiles.
On a mobile screen which is much smaller, advertisers need to be sophisticated in finding new ways to approach the new platform.
One way being suggested is that advertisers will sponsor certain content.
What is for certain is that success will often require close co-ordination between operators, advertisers, media companies and handset manufacturers.
But the opportunity is enormous. Unlike the TV or even the PC, mobiles are truly the personal individual device and the marketing opportunity as niche as you like.
As such, companies that find smart ways to use mobiles to advertise their wares and connect with customers will doubtless find their pot of gold.
sainsburym@theaustralian.com.au
Wired had something to say about it too:Ever wanted to know where you were, but didn't have a GPS handy? Wondered about ways to use that cell phone sitting in your pocket to find out where you are?
These are things that the network providers want to offer to you -- at high cost, either to you or a partner that would charge the cost back to you.
As a broke college student, I asked myself these things. Then I got a GPS, and realized that there *is* another way around it. With some Python code and a lot of free time, I wandered around town, recording GPS traces and associating them with cell towers.
This project was born of that. I've loaded my data in, and I'm working with other people around the country (US) and the world to collect data in every city, town, country. Want to help? Grab a program, grab a GPS, and upload some data. Don't have a GPS? Use the simple form to enter your location and cell ID.
The Geowanking project sounds coooool.Schmidt spends his time wandering around his hometown of Cambridge, Massachusetts, using his custom cell-phone software to unmask the ID numbers on each GSM cell tower he passes. Then he associates that tower ID with a GPS-defined location, and uploads it to his website.
When his electronic surveying is complete, Schmidt will have a system that can tell him where he is at all times -- without GPS -- by triangulating the signals from the newly mapped cell towers.
Calling himself a "neogeographer," Schmidt is part of a generation of coders whose work is inspired by easily obtained map data, as well as the mashups made possible by Google Maps and Microsoft's Virtual Earth.
RESTON, Va., and WATERLOO, ON. - Sept. 20, 2006 - Sprint (NYSE: S) and Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today introduced the BlackBerryÒ 8703e from Sprint with updated features, including EV-DO support and Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) capability in a sleek and light design.
The BlackBerry 8703e includes integrated GPS (assisted-GPS) enabled through Sprint to deliver support for popular location-based services to mobile users, such as turn-by-turn driving directions to any address, anywhere on the Nationwide Sprint PCS Network.
Soon, triangulation (iffy at best) will be a thing of the past.POLICE have arrested the man they believe is responsible for kidnapping a 14-year-old girl who sent a text message to her mother that led to her rescue from a booby-trapped bunker.
The sheriff said the text message the girl sent to her mother came from Filyaw's mobile phone. Investigators used telecommunications towers to determine the general location of the phone used to send the message.
Wherify Announces Global Reseller Agreement With Siemens Communications; Siemens Communications and Affiliates to Market and Distribute Wherifone GPS Locator Terminal and Services Worldwide REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 11, 2006--Wherify Wireless,Inc. (OTCBB:WFYW), a leading developer of patented wireless location solutions and services for family safety and communications, today announced a global reseller agreement with Siemens(R) (NYSE:SI) to market and distribute the award-winning Wherifone GSM/GPS locator terminal and personal location and communications services on a worldwide basis. Under the agreement, Siemens and its affiliates have agreed to market and distribute Wherify's Wherifone GSM/GPS locator terminal and location services as a combined turn-key solution. Wherify will provide technical support and provide its customizable carrier-class Global Location Services Center as a core location management and mapping solution for location-enabled communications and GPS location/safety services.Wherifone is still not available in the US or here DownUnder. Annual report due June '06 - should be interesting. Ah well, such 'deals' drives up the share price for both parties. Can anyone spell B.U.B.B.L.E. ? heh.
SLAVING away at my desk one afternoon, my mind worlds away from my family, my concentration was broken by a message alert from my mobile phone. The SMS said my daughter had left the area between school and home, though she was supposed to go straight home. I went on to the web and saw on a global-positioning system (GPS) map that she was heading south on Melbourne's Nepean Highway.In this case, Dave's wife had picked up the munchkin and was taking her shopping. It'll be interesting to see if people buy the phone purely for peace of mind or if communicating with the little ones (missed my flight, go wait in the library until your mum/stepdad/stepmum picks you up) becomes a priority in this communication age. Do schools even take messages like that anymore?
All GSM operators are installing Location Based Services due to the E112 regulation that requires positioning from Mobile Phones. Depending on the exact technology implemented by your operator the accuracy of the position varies. Since most technologies are based on Cell-id the quality is best in cities (50-100 m) and less accurate in rural areas (>100 m).Read more on their website.Next to the existing Cell-ID based positioning Teydo is involved in projects testing A-GPS based handsets and GPS/GPRS enabled handsets in order to increase positioning accuracy and reduce positioning costs. Since we connect to all LBS enabled European GSM Operators we understand the possibilities and hurdles of LBS extremely well which enables us to assist third parties in their development and launch of position oriented services.
- Positioning works with every GSM mobile phone
- Switching your phone off disables positioning
- Positioning works inside buildings
- Only opt-in services are supported by Teydo
- International roaming is currently not possible
The MobiSPOT™ aggregator platform of Teydo enables third parties to enhance their applications and services with positioning, messaging and billing functionality.
Global Positioning System receivers are poised to play a "critical role" in wireless communications as a result of the United States Federal Communications Commission's E911 directive, and location based services are expected to follow on the heels of the mandate, according to tech research firm Frost & Sullivan.Read more here.
The prolific analyst firm finds that successful E911/LBS products and services will "require products with features that can implement GPS in mobile telephones."
Frost & Sullivan's report, "Strategic Analysis of GPS Chipset Market," concludes that the market earned revenue of $207 million in 2004, and estimates it will reach $589.1 million in 2008.
Wanted Smiling is about moving social networks from the desktop to the mobile phone. Wanted Smiling solutions extend the existing on-line communities and Social networks from Virtuality to Reality. Wanted Smiling has developed a LBS MOSOSO* peer-to-peer technology for communities and social networks. Our peer-to-peer platform allows communities and social networks to expand and extend their services to the mobile phone.MOSOSO is Mobile Social Sofware. Cute huh?
Are You Here alerts your mobile when your friends are nearby. Create your profile, Use your mobile to know who is around, Meet friends and friends of friends!I see this as being useful for teenagers - to meet cute guys and gals, to avoid high school nemesis, to duck and hide when the parents come into view!
QUALCOMM is proud to use our satellite-based mobile communications and location-based services to work with NCMEC, trucking companies and their drivers across the country to help locate abducted children.
Secondary methods of distribution such as QUALCOMM's initiative, which delivers Alerts through the OmniTRACS(R) mobile communications solution, assist in achieving the overall goal of the AMBER Alert program -- to notify as many people as possible about a recent child abduction, and provide information that can help in the search for the abducted child, suspected abductor, and/or suspected vehicle and in the safer return of the child.
Telcontar, the leading supplier of software platforms and services for the Location-Based Services (LBS) industry, has announced that its Rich Map Engine (RME) software is being used by Benefon to location-enable the company's newly introduced TWIG Discovery GPS/GSM handset. Launched at 3GSM World Congress, in Barcelona, Spain, the TWIG Discovery combines GPS-enabled navigation with GSM telephony. The TWIG Discovery provides a wide range of location-based and navigation applications that include routing with voice prompted turn-by-turn instructions and points of interest, which can be updated on-the-fly. It also includes current speed, SMS messaging, family & friends finding and tracking, real-time traffic reports, speed/safety camera positions and SOS messages.How well does TWIG work with GSM? Can you get within a stones throw of the mobile? This will be available in the UK in 2006 distributed by 20:20 Distribution.
But it's given rise to numerous location-based services for mobiles that have privacy advocates concerned. Log on to the tracking service website and enter a mobile number. A text message is sent to the mobile. If you can get your hands on it (your partner's mobile) and send a text message back to the service, that phone is authorized to be tracked, and the online service will display a map that shows everywhere that phone has been throughout the day. Call her, ask where she is—if she claims to be downtown shopping and you see a blip on your computer screen that she's at the Hilton by the airport, you've got a pretty good indicator of infidelity
