We have heard of Location-Based Services (LBS) for years, but the market never really took off. At NAVX, we think the time is now ripe for LBS : GPS chips are now cheap and precise, geolocalisation is widespread thanks to TomTom and its competitors, maps are commonly used on the web thanks to Google Earth and its mash-ups, car navigation is a killer app, and ... GPS phones are about to hit the European market.
Location-Based Services are about finding a person, a place, an information or a thing relative to the user’s current location. And we can imagine the following services :
- Mobile search
- Dynamic content push & pull (such as gas prices, speedcams, parking availability, etc)
- Mobile reservation/ booking
- Peer-to-Peer/ Community interactions
- Security Packages (knowing about the whereabouts and safety of spouses, children, relatives, and even pets)
- Live traffic information and floating car data
- Location Based Gaming Market
- Mobile Social Networking (buddy location..etc)
- Geotagging
- Mobile Geo-advertising
- etc
On which platforms these services could be used ? Specifically on cell phones, providing navigation beyond the vehicle, allowing access to various LBS apps, with the largest potential addressible market in terms of price/fonctionality (remember that 80 millions GPS phones will be sold in Europe in 2009 according to Berg Insight). But also on connected PNDs, which will allow users not only to receive updated and personalised information in their car, but also to transmit data back to the server and share them.
We think there are three key factors for LBS to be a success :
- Focus on specific customer needs, even if they look like a niche (security, finding your pals, get alerted, etc)
- Launch lots of applications and test them on customers (no one knows which one will really get traction)
- Integrate LBS seamlessly in the phones and PNDs
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