With LBS, It's All About "Getting to Free"


Today, I met with Joe Herzog, Director of Emerging Products and Eric Larson, Product Manager for Directories at InfoSpace, a company focused on mobile phone applications, many with a location context. Herzog said that while today you will be paying a subscription fee for mobile location-based service "it's all about getting to free." Herzog thinks the current business models are not necessarily the ones that will be viable over the long run. "Calls and clicks" is the revenue model of most mobile phone operators and the location-based services that people will demand must be a part of that same model. Herzog believes that LBS applications should be free, or at least transparently so, to the user. The LBS app will just chew up more minutes and hence a larger return to the operator. However, in the near term, look for LBS subscription plans to be in the $2 - $3 per month fee range.