Americans are buying global positioning systems (GPS) for their cars in large numbers, reports AdAge. The NPD Group says that revenues are up 214% and GPS unit sales up a whopping 488% over last year.
The M&A activity in the sector is on an upswing, and the primary driver being location-based and mapping services on the mobile phones, the latest being NXP Semiconductors’ $85 million buyout of GloNav.
As new network-enabled Dash devices and more mobile phones come to market in 2008, next 12 months will see an upswing in news and noise around location-based services. At least I think so. Any thoughts?
Happy Holidays Om,
I guess we’re the only Geeks not shopping this morning. ;-)
Without sounding self serving, I think 2008 will see some market take up of location based services (LBS). The areas (imho) I think will see some activity are local entertainment and supporting services (like local advertising on cell phones). This area will see dedicated applications, though i’m not sure “local search” will take off in LBS due to ergonomic limitations.
Curtis
Happy Holidays. I have stayed as far away as possible from the shopping areas this week. Not going shopping.
My big LBS pick will be: local restaurant and bar guides. How many times I have found myself stranded, not knowing where to go and eat. I want a cool LBS service that lets me know what’s cool within five block radius.
More importantly, I think we should hope for innovative thinking on LBS.
Om,
I couldn’t agree more with your pick as I think you’re talking about the same category of “local entertainment” that I referred to previously. I’d suggest keeping perspective on first generational products in the LBS space. Hopefully we’ll see innovative thinking as you suggested, as well as a few groundbreaking LBS applications.
A study had shown that location-based services, represent 51 percent of the $118 million in revenue that downloadable mobile applications generated during Q2 2007 (http://www.wildblueskies.com/2007/11/04/lbs-represents-51-of-revenue-from-downloadable-mobile-apps/)
Just another indication of how popular its going to be once there are more applications that make use of it. The opportunities for a comprehensive Mobile Marketing solution are also huge.
I want to find the cheapest place to buy gas. Tired of paying too much when stations charge 15 cts per gal less in some cases.
Om,
I hope you’re feeling better. also I think you’re correct.
should be an interesting year.