In the right direction

Navteq is a provider of comprehensive digital map data for automotive navigation systems, mobile navigation devices, Internet-based mapping applications, and government and business solutions. Last October Nokia announced a move to acquire the Chicago-based mapping company, and given the handset manufacturer’s belief that contextualisation is becoming an increasingly integral part of social and commercial interactions, the ubiquity of location-based services has never been so compelling

“There were 25 million handsets sold in Europe, Middle East and Africa, which supported global positioning systems (GPS),” says Serge Bussat, Navteq’s vice president and general manager of Consumer and Wireless Europe. “This number is forecast to rise to 79 million in 2009, showing the strong market take-up of portable location-based service services and applications,” he adds.

The promise of location-based services, at least in the mobile communications space, has been in existence since the introduction of GPRS, with operators having expected a slew of new revenue-generating services to come to market. The opening of the location floodgates never came to pass, and in the decade or so since, parties from both within and outside of the communications sector have been developing location services into something compelling, and which has genuine appeal.

“When it comes to portable mapping and location services, the breakthrough has come with the development of the underlying technology; the fact that applications have improved on phones; the higher level of consumer education; and the momentum being gathered in this area by companies such as HTC, Nokia and Samsung,” Bussat says.

The penetration of navigation applications in mobile devices in Western Europe has risen to up to 20 per cent as pan-regional operators such as Vodafone, Telefonica, and T-Mobile show interest in the area and brings services to market.

It is not only in developing markets that the appeal of navigation applications is expanding and in the Middle East for example, Navteq’s current map coverage in the region is already extensive and includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE – with plans to add Morocco and Egypt later this year.

“We have 30 people on the ground in Dubai alone, which is evidence of our faith in this market, and our commitment to its development,” Bussat comments. “We believe in the strength of the Middle East market because of the level of innovation found here, as well as with all the wireless initiatives taking place.”

Through its Ovi content portal, Nokia has been developing value added services around applications such as music, maps, and gaming. An ability to contextualise and monetise a subscriber’s location is an essential component of Ovi’s operation, and thus mapping and location-basedservices in general start to play a more significant role in the multimedia content proposition.

Speaking at 3GSM Congress in Barcelona early this year, Holger Knoepke, executive vice-president of product design and provision at T-Mobile International, identified five key drivers for the operator’s development of search-based applications:

• Monetising of sponsored links
• To drive content revenues
• To drive mobile advertising revenues
• To drive mobile access revenues
• To strengthen the operator’s brand

“The success factors of mobile search and location includes its location, federated search (more than just web links, but the inclusion of pictures as well), contextual relevance, as well as personal relevance,” Knoepke suggested.

Last year, Yahoo! launched its OneSearch application, which the company believes was a revolutionary step with respect to search and retrieval of information using a mobile phone. OneSearch delivers multiple information results on a single search request without the device user having to click on multiple links and finding his back through a lengthy navigation process.

The rise of user-generated content on the Internet and the growing popularity of social networking sites adds further impetus to the development of location applications that can show where an individual is in relation to other members of his peer group.

Navteq has no problem partnering with brands that push location services of their own, or which would rather use Navteq technology in the back-end, while branding it something else on the front-end.

“We don’t have a large ego when it comes to these types of things,” says Bussat. ‘We are willing to partner and being a tier-one supplier is also a valuable part of our business.”

Location turning point

Worldwide subscribers to location-based communications services on mobile devices will increase by nearly 168 per cent in 2008 while revenue will grow by 169 per cent, according to research firm Gartner.

“Location-based service technologies have been around for several years but they have not experienced the rate of success that was anticipated at the beginning,” said Annette Zimmermann, a research analyst at Gartner. “The market for location-based services is at a turning point, with indications of mainstream adoption in the next two to five years.”

Gartner said the number of subscribers worldwide will rise from 16 million in 2007 to 43.2 million in 2008 and revenue will rise from US$485.1 million in 2007 to US$1.31 billion in 2008. The number of subscribers is expected to reach nearly 300 million in 2011 and revenue is forecast to top US$8 billion in 2011.

People are familiar with the small, satellite-based, GPS navigation devices in vehicles. Many want the same or similar services outside their vehicles and on their mobile phones. Increasingly, mobile phones are including GPS capabilities to supplement the less precise location sensing that is an integral function of all cellular systems. As the technology has improved, other services become possible, such as navigation for tourists and pedestrians, child location, find-a-friend and local directories and advertising.

“Growth now will be stimulated by the arrival of mobile phones with built-in, precise location sensing and the arrival of new service providers, like Google and Nokia with its service offerings, keen to exploit geographic and positioning technologies,” Zimmermann said