9 April 2008
According to a report from telecom research firm Berg Insight, more than 100 million mobile subscribers in Europe will use location-based services (LBS) by 2012.
Mapping, navigation and search are believed to become the top applications, followed by social networking and tracking. Berg said all the pieces required to set up a successful LBS infrastructure are now in place.
André Malm, telecom analyst at Berg Insight, commented: “GPS is about to become a standard feature in mass-market handsets, which are highly advanced and support third-party applications. Many will try and a few players will most likely succeed in creating location-enabled mobile applications that will have the same impact on the mobile industry as MySpace and Facebook had on the internet.”
However, the analyst warned that high adoption rates would not immediately translate into high revenues. The mobile advertising eco-system is still undeveloped and needs many more years to become mature. LBS providers, Berg suggested, are going to have to depend on advertising sales in the same way as other online players.
“First there must be a critical mass of active users to work with, then someone must create a successful model for reaching out to these individuals via their handsets and after that the mobile media must be embraced by the top spenders in the advertising industry,” added André.
