@ IIR’s LOCATION BASED SERVICES 2007: Fallout Over Nokia-Navteq; Privacy Concerns Mount; Will Users Vote With Their Feet When They Get Billed For Services On The Fly?
These were just a few of the topics that dominated discussion and debate at Location Based Services in Madrid this week. The breadth of topics at the four-day conference, which I attended, prove LBS is moving up the must-have functionality checklist to sit at the center of a growing range of services ranging from mobile search to mobile advertising – and a couple of surprises in between. But that’s the point really. After a couple of false starts the industry understands location is a feature of services, not a stand-alone service. (I wonder how long before social networking services understand that connecting with friends will have to go the same way…)
Back to conference, which was packed with worthwhile contributions from the likes of Orange FT Group, 3, Telefonica, Qualcomm, Toshiba, Garmin and Autodesk. Predictably, the Nokia-Navteq deal was a footnote to every discussion and providers, who will now have to buy maps from competitors Nokia or TomTom, were visibly concerned that the tie-up could make life difficult. But there was also optimism about the chances now for smaller players, particularly if they mobilize their assets to focus on the long tail of personalized navigation content and services.
Context is the new buzzword. But it’s not hype; some very real business opportunities are ripe for the picking. Mark Slade, Managing Director for 4th Screen Advertising, a mobile advertising agency that brokers advertising and sponsorship contracts between brands, media buyers and mobile operators, revealed he’s seeing huge interest from the automotive industry in location-enabled mobile advertising. In his view they are poised and ready to snap up ad-inventory with a location element the moment it comes onto the market.
Operators across the board are upbeat. And with good reason since they own the location data that is the missing link between advertisers and consumers on the move. Orange France Telecom gave us a peek at LBS in action in the form of Orange Local, its mobile local search service. No stats from the trials – unfortunately – but we’re assured user response is positive. The service, combined with navigation and mapping, open up new business opportunities for contextually-relevant advertising and ad-funded content and apps pitches. However, Orange should think clearly about automotive search categories to take advantage of early interest from this sector.
Meanwhile, Ofir Yaffe, Head of Products & Services at Orange Israel delivered a much-needed word of caution and reminded us that the LBS navigation market does present operators with challenges. “When customers use navigation services while roaming a $50 bill can easily turn into a $500 bill and we face a situation where customers will churn.” Translated: The EU and operators have to work out still lower data roaming costs– otherwise the only thing to grow will be user frustration.
Finally, a possible solution to the privacy problem comes from BlueSky Positioning, a provider of SIM based Assisted-GPS (A-GPS) solutions. Velipekka Kuoppala, BlueSky Positioning VP of Sales & Marketing, faced a barrage of questioning surrounding the company’s embedded solution that places A-GPS capabilities within the SIM card. It certainly puts the user in control of the service and may even overcome the hurdle of how to reach the mass market without subsidising a new wave of expensive handsets. (The product is currently in the development and implementation phase.) The debate didn’t sway Velipekka, who pointed out that placing control within the hands of the user will be the ultimate service driver. “If A-GPS is behind the SIM security, consumers can be assured that privacy will not be violated.”
Four days of discussions, demos and after-hours debate prove that LBS is a must-have feature for the future of personal mobility services. Fingers crossed that the industry can understand this new context in context, so to speak, and take a holistic approach to delivering LBS across service silos. A simple solution that serves all market segments would certainly provide the impetus for a location-enabled mass-market services explosion.
