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Mobile:
Berg Insight
Market Study April 2008
Mobile Location-Based Services covers the latest
developments on the European LBS market.
This report in the LBS Research Series from Berg Insight
provides you with 140 pages of unique business intelligence
including 5-year industry forecasts and expert commentary
on which to base your business decisions.
This report will help you
understand the dynamics of:
Location technologies such as GPS, A-GPS,
Cell-ID and hybrid network based solutions.
Mapping and navigation services provided handset
vendors, operators and independent parties.
Local search and information applications developed by
established Internet industry leaders and new start-ups.
Community and entertainment services such as IM,
social networking and location-based games.
Tracking applications created for consumers and
professional users.
Location-based billing business models for mobile
What is the current status of the
European mobile LBS market?
Even though many mobile location-based services (LBS) have
not become as successful as anticipated a few years ago, some
location services already show much promise in several European
countries. The most successful services, in terms of revenues, are
turn-by-turn navigation services, corporate fleet management and
tracking solutions, in addition to location-based voice and data
tariffs. In 2007, about seven years since the launch of the first
services, European mobile LBS revenues amounted to roughly €
157 million.
Several important drivers are finally about to bring a breakthrough
for LBS in
intensified competition and regulations driving call prices
down, mobile network operators increasingly seek new ways of
maintaining revenue growth. Increased focus on delivering value
added services, including various location-based services, is one
means of achieving this. The performance of new handsets is
gradually improving, with a growing share of handsets featuring
larger displays with higher resolution. Moreover, because of
improving coverage of high speed 3G networks, increased
availability of reasonably priced flat rate data plans, as well as
better browsers in handsets, usage of mobile internet services are
increasing at a fast rate in
Meanwhile, new possibilities to access suitable location data is
emerging for service providers. EU E112 regulations mandating
location of emergency callers have prompted operators to
install positioning technology in their networks. To leverage the
investments, more and more operators open their platforms to third
party developers and location aggregators to enable deployment
of commercial services. Some service providers, such as Google,
even compile their own databases of cell tower locations that can
be used as free alternatives, albeit with lower initial availability
in some regions. 2008 is well set to become the breakthrough
year for GPS-enabled handsets in
are finally launching a growing number of models. These new
handsets feature user plane assisted GPS, enabling deployment
of assistance services with lower network impact and lower cost
compared to control plane implementations in the past.
Greater availability of GPS handsets has proven especially
important for turn-by-turn navigation services that require high
accuracy location data, but are less sensitive to availability of
position data indoors. In contrast to early adopters, mass-market
users have not been willing to use external GPS receivers. Current
navigation services are centred on in-car navigation, but most
service providers are introducing new features to drive usage
and add value in every-day situations, for instance pedestrian
and multimodal navigation, local search, social networking and
location sharing.
Many new services being launched, including location-enhanced
social networking, search and information services, in addition
to turn-by-turn navigation services, are intended to be funded
primarily through advertisements. The number of users is still
low but grows fast. At the moment, most ads are in the form of
banners and interstitials that are not served based on the users’
location. However, many actors in the value chain show great
interest in providing targeted ads based on user’s current location.
Nevertheless, several issues, such as user privacy, pricing of
location data, along with scalability of the location technology need
to be resolved before location-based advertisement campaigns
can leave the trial stage and contribute significantly to the LBS
industry revenues.
Berg Insight forecasts European LBS revenues to grow to about
€ 421 million in 2012. Including location-based tariffs for data
and voice calls, total revenues can well exceed €1,816 million.
Although location-based tariffs may not be introduced in all
European countries due to specific market characteristics, there
is still considerable potential in markets were fixed to mobile
substitution has not progressed far yet.
What is the current status of the European mobile LBS market?
How is GPS-technology altering the conditions for
providers of location-based services?
Can the success from the navigation device market
be transferred to the mobile environment?
What are the plans of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!
in the area of local search?
How can location technology enable and enhance
mobile social networking?
What types of tracking services are available on the
European market?
Why are mobile operators such as Telefónica O2, TMobile
and Vodafone introducing location-based billing?
For full details, please email jeremyk@cmsinfo.com
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