Smartphoners Tap Google

location based services

Posted by Dave Gerardi

Google tops the list of Web destinations by smartphone users in M:Metric’s April 2007 report. Google held a nine point advantage over the second place Orange in the United Kingdom and a whopping 29 percentage point lead over Yahoo in the United States.

United States

Company	Total
Google Inc.	62.48%
Yahoo! Inc.	33.54%
Microsoft Corporation	33.36%
AT&T Inc.	21.22%
Time Warner Inc.	19.06%
The Walt Disney Company	17.00%
News Corporation	15.54%
Sprint Nextel	15.29%
The Weather Channel	15.28%
eBay Inc.	14.19%

United Kingdom

Company	Total
Google Inc.	30.94%
Orange Personal Communications	21.68%
British Broadcasting Corporation	20.90%
Microsoft Corporation	17.75%
Vodafone Group PLC	16.79%
eBay Inc.	13.08%
O2 (UK) Ltd, Service Operations	12.77%
Hutchison Whampoa Limited	12.67%
Yahoo! Inc.	10.97%
Deutsche Telekom AG	10.71%

M:Metrics

Categories: Mobile, Mobile Web | Bookmark this post with del.icio.us

No

Smaato featured on Forbes.com

location based services

Erika Brown, from the Silicon Valley Bureau of Forbes Magazine published a great story on the recent Innovate Europe event and the Venture Capital and entrepreneur scene in Europe.

Smaato was mentioned in her report “Everything ventured“:

” … In addition to a handful of location-based services, Smaato was one of the interesting mobile businesses. The company, dual-based in Hamburg and San Mateo, Calif., offers a way for small companies that make cellphone software to make money from selling ads that appear as banners at the top of a screen. Co-founder Harald Neidhardt says he thinks mobile-phone advertising has the potential to reach $1.5 billion. “There are more smartphones sold than PCs or laptops, and there are more than 50,000 application developers for those devices,” he says. …”

Bell Selects TeleNav to Power Mobile GPS Navigation Service

location based services

June 30, 2007 at 10:21 am · Filed under Software

GPS Nav from Bell Now Available on BlackBerry® 8830

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–TeleNav Inc., the first company to launch a GPS navigation service for mobile devices in North America, today announced Bell has chosen the company’s turn-by-turn GPS navigation service, named GPS Nav from Bell, for the new BlackBerry® 8830 smartphone from Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq:RIMM) (TSX:RIM).

GPS Nav from Bell provides users with turn-by-turn, GPS-enabled directions, just like an in-car navigation service, but on a mobile device. It includes full-color, 3D moving maps, voice and on-screen navigation, and information and directions to millions of business listings in North America, including local Wi-Fi hotspots. GPS Nav from Bell automatically updates itself with current information so customers never have to worry about downloading the latest maps or business listings.

“With a smartphone as feature-rich as the new BlackBerry 8830, we believe many business customers will consider this their all-in-one mobile device,” said Adel Bazerghi, Bell Mobility’s vice president of products. “TeleNav’s GPS service is high-quality, easy-to-use and incorporates relevant features that our customers will enjoy using everyday for both work or play.”

Features of GPS Nav from Bell include:

* * Voice and on-screen turn-by-turn driving directions – Customers can type in or use voice recognition to call-in destinations, and GPS Nav from Bell computes the routes. While driving, users get up-to-the minute guidance, including street names, and will automatically be re-routed if a turn is missed.
* * Full-color 3D moving maps – Just like an in-car navigation system, the 3D maps turn, move and stop along with the driver, while also displaying a realistic image of the streets the driver is approaching and passing. Users can also pan and zoom around the map to view surrounding streets.
* * Biz Finder (local search) – Customers can look up more than 10 million businesses and services in North America, including ATMs, restaurants, hotels, Wi-Fi hotspots and gas stations, and easily navigate to them with the click of a button.
* * Spot Marker – Users can mark waypoints to help find their way back to a location or to record points of interest.
* * Pedestrian Mode – GPS Nav from Bell can be used while walking to help guide customers through crowded downtown streets or back to a parked car.
* * My Favorites – Customers can save as many addresses as needed for easy access and directions later.

“There is no reason that anyone needs to invest in an expensive, in-car navigation system or a separate navigation device,” said Dr. HP Jin, president, CEO and co-founder of TeleNav. “GPS Nav from Bell offers customers the same peace of mind and even more features – but on a device they already carry with them.”

Bell customers can download GPS Nav directly from their BlackBerry 8830 smartphone. Ongoing subscription to the service costs $9.99 per month, plus a data plan for unlimited usage.

For more information on GPS Nav from Bell and additional devices that support GPS Nav, please visit www.bell.ca/wireless or www.telenav.com.

About TeleNav Inc.

TeleNav, Inc., headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, was the first company to launch a GPS navigation system on mobile phones in the United States. TeleNav is a global leader in wireless location-based services (LBS), including GPS navigation, Mobile Resource Management (MRM), asset GPS tracking (AVL) and local search. The company’s flagship product, TeleNav GPS Navigator™, is comparable to in-car systems found in luxury vehicles, but offers a superior experience with functionality such as automatically updated maps and business locations, full color 3D moving maps, traffic alerts and one-click rerouting, speech recognition, Wi-Fi hotspot finder, lowest price fuel finder and more.

TeleNav partners include Research In Motion (RIM), Motorola, Samsung, Sanyo, LG, Palm, HTC, Hewlett Packard, Nokia, NAVTEQ, Tele Atlas, deCarta, Qualcomm and SiRF Technology Holdings.

The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limit

Nokia launches advanced E series smartphone location based services PTI[ THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 2007 07:10:19 PM]

NEW DELHI: World's largest mobile handsets maker Nokia on Thursday launched its most advanced smartphone in the latest 'Communicator' series aimed at business people. Priced at Rs 40,500, E90 Communicator gives businessmen the facility of two cameras, video conferencing, high-speed internet and email access and maps application for location- based services. The smartphone also has a new feature called Active Notes, which allows taking notes and tag it to an individual name helping as a reminder when talking to that person. It also offers fast connections on third generation mobile services on voice, video and data as well as on enhanced 3G services like HSDPA. Nokia Enterprise Solutions General Manager Chakrapani GK said E90 also allows users to view, open and edit email attachments with 'Quick Office' besides offering Adobe Acrobat Reader and Zip Manager. The addition of E90 is expected to push up the already 1.5 lakh Communicator user-base in India, he said. Chakrapani said smartphone segment is growing at 50 per cent in the mobile device category and Nokia has globally sold 200 million such phones with a leading marketshare of 50 per cent. Based on S60 platform where a host of additional mobile applications are also available, the E90 has an integrated GPS (Global Positioning System), the only fully functional Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and Nokia maps applications that helps in finding routes and locating services.

Plazes in Google Earthlocation based services neogeography, Google Earth, Thoughts Add comments

Plazes in Google Earth

location based services

neogeography, Google Earth, Thoughts Add comments

Despite a few hiccups with the latest Plazer client, I’m sticking with my experiment of using Plazes to track my presence and location. I’m glad I have because, the very interested data behind plazes has now been exposed in the form of a plazes KML file. This is really neat, by logging in you can view your own locations, without logging in, you can view the global plazes database and see a real time feed of the latest plazes registered by users. Credit to Tim at Plazes for a really nice use of KML !!

Like the recent twittermap, in can be almost hypnotic watching the geeks of the world posting their locations, and the experience is all the more interesting in Google Earth.

The plazes KML is available for download at www.plazes.com/kml

Written and Submitted from the Google Office, Zurich.

Telematics Veteran to Push ATX Beyond Embedded Car Systems location based services Posted : Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:12:02 GMT Author : ATX Group Category : PressRelease News Alerts by Email click here ) Create your own RSS PressRelease News | Create your own RSS | Home

DALLAS-FORT WORTH, Texas, June 28 /PRNewswire/ -- A 15-year veteran of the vehicle telematics and location-based telecommunications industries, Shiva Kalisetty, has been tapped by ATX Group to expand telematics services beyond embedded automotive systems to various types of portable and desktop communications and navigation devices. ATX Group is the world's largest independent telematics provider to the automotive industry, serving both North America and Europe. Kalisetty joins ATX as its Vice President of Business Development, leveraging his expertise in mobile and embedded telematics and wireless devices, software, Internet services and e-commerce. He has extensive experience in conceiving and executing new business initiatives with public and startup companies. Kalisetty was most recently responsible for business development and marketing of the location-based services product portfolio at Clarity Communication Systems. He built successful strategic partnerships with mobile carriers, content providers, telecommunication infrastructure vendors, GIS software providers, and handset manufacturers. Earlier in his career, Kalisetty spent over 13 years at NAVTEQ. The addition of Kalisetty coincides with the introduction of ATX's T3, or third generation of telematics services, which are designed in part to enhance the interface between vehicle systems and portable consumer electronics devices brought into the vehicle as well the content transmitted through such connections. Kalisetty earned a B.S. in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from Osmania University in India, an MS in Electrical & Systems Engineering from the University of Connecticut and an MBA with highest honors from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. Based in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, area and Dusseldorf, Germany, ATX Group is the world's largest independent provider of personalized telematics services for the automobile industry, serving both North America and Europe. ATX telematics services are designed to provide enhanced safety, security and driving convenience to vehicle owners. ATX, also customizes telematics services to help automobile manufacturers and their affiliated dealerships to use telematics data to reduce costs, enhance vehicle servicing, and more closely manage customer relationships. ATX services are provided to vehicle owners through the brand names of its customers -- Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Peugeot, Maybach, and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. For more information, visit http://www.atxg.com/. ATX Group CONTACT: Gary Wallace, Vice President, Corporate Relations, ATX Group, +1-800-511-5891, or +1-972-753-6230, or gwallace@atxg.com Web site: http://www.atxg.com/

Copyright © 2007 PR Newswire. All rights reserved. » Print this article

iPhone Dives Into Ocean Of New Smartphones

Executives with rival device makers virtually all say the same thing: We love it.
By Richard Martin InformationWeek Jun 27, 2007 05:00 PM
Responding to Friday's release of the iPhone, the most talked-about launch in mobile-phone history, executives with rival device makers virtually all say the same thing: We love it.
"We think it's great," says David Petts, senior vice president for Nokia's global enterprise solutions group, noting that the iPhone, while not a business-oriented device itself, is bringing attention to an entire new class of multimedia smartphones that go beyond the traditional strengths of the BlackBerry: integration with corporate email systems, decent voice capabilities, and rudimentary Web access.
"The iPhone's arrival is serving as a catalyst for the other handheld makers to finally get serious about their converged smartphone offerings," says Carmi Levy, senior vice president for strategic consulting at AR Communications. "The smartphone is finally emerging out of its awkward adolescent phase."
Many of these converged devices offer iPhone innovations trumpeted by Apple, at comparable or lower prices: the HTC Touch, for example, has a touch-screen interface like the iPhone, and is available unlocked (i.e. not tied to a specific carrier) via online importers for about the same price as an AT&T-only iPhone. Loaded with iPhone-like multimedia functions, the BlackBerry Curve is available unlocked for about $100 less. Also available unlocked, LG's Prada has a stylish exterior and a beautiful interface to rival the iPhone.
And then there's Helio Ocean. Like the iPhone, it's a consumer-oriented device with a unique interface (in this case, two keyboards to the iPhone's none) and an almost unparalleled set of features that has been lavishly reviewed. Unlike the iPhone, it's not tied to the traditional carrier service model (besides offering devices, Helio is a mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, meaning that it offers wireless service over the Sprint backbone). And it costs $200 less.
Only available since last month, the Ocean is too new for its success to be reliably gauged. Headed by EarthLink founder Sky Dayton, Helio claims to have recently broken the 100,000-subscriber model, making it a gnat on the flank of the Big Four U.S. carriers (AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile). But innovative device has already captured the imagination of the small percentage of the handset cognoscenti who aren't camping out, literally or figuratively, waiting for Friday's 6 p.m. iPhone release.
Trying to capitalize on the iPhone release, Helio has released a PowerPoint slide that gives a point-by-point comparison between the Apple device and the Ocean. A quick glance yields some interesting points.
Instant messaging capability: iPhone, no; Ocean, AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger; plus IM capability integrated directly into the device's address book.
GPS capability: iPhone, no; Ocean, GPS-enabled Google Maps plus the "Buddy Beacon" friend finder, and photo-tagging with GPS data.
Network speeds: iPhone, EDGE network with rates of 70-135Kbit/s; Ocean, high-speed 3G network with rates up to 2.4Mbit/s.
What's more, says Levy, "Helio's online/call center subscription model allows customers to bypass the typically Byzantine retail channel and provides more direct control over the service through the life of the device." Providing relief for mobile phone users fed up with the traditional carrier-dominated model, this innovative system "could be just as significant as any flashy hardware launch announcement."
Does this mean that the Ocean is a better device than the iPhone, or that it'll outsell the Apple device? Not necessarily, and not likely. Nobody was camping out waiting for the Ocean's release. It does indicate, though, that smartphone options (and price points) are expanding rapidly, and the iPhone is entering a market that's far more crowded now than it was in January when Steve Jobs first introduced his latest world-changer.

Global mobile phone use to hit record 3.25 billion ( i.e. half world population )

location based services

see previous post on half world population is now living in cities --


By Kirstin RidleyReutersWednesday, June 27, 2007; 11:15 AM
LONDON (Reuters) - Global mobile phone use will top 3.25 billion -- equivalent to around half the world's population -- in 2007 as cell phone demand booms in China, India and Africa, a survey said on Wednesday.
From African farmers to Chinese factory workers, mobile phone subscriptions will pass the 3 billion mark in July and exceed 3.25 billion by the end of the year, according to a report by UK-based telecoms analysis company The Mobile World.
QUIZ
Which university does the creator of the "Plasma Pong" video game attend? A. Georgetown University B. Massachusetts Institute of Technology C. University of Maryland D. George Mason University • Test Your Knowledge -- More Questions
Partnership

Resources for anyone who runs a small business or wants to start one.
• Starting a Business• Small Business on the Net• Home-Based Businesses
» FULL COVERAGE
var technorati = new Technorati() ;
technorati.setProperty('url','http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/27/AR2007062700488_Technorati.html') ;
technorati.article = new item('Global mobile phone use to hit record 3.25 billion','http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/27/AR2007062700488.html','LONDON (Reuters) - Global mobile phone use will top 3.25
billion -- equivalent to around half the world\'s population --
in 2007 as cell phone demand booms in China, India and Africa,
a survey said on Wednesday.','Kirstin Ridley') ;
document.write( technorati.getDisplaySidebar() );
Save & Share Article
What's This?
Digg
Google
del.icio.us
Yahoo!
Reddit
Facebook


The world's population is forecast to hit around 6.6 billion in July, according to U.S. figures.
Along with the Internet, the mobile phone has revolutionized communication. The mobile phone has spread from city whiz kids to Brazilian slum dwellers.
More than 1,000 new customers are effectively signing up for mobile phones every minute around the world, the survey showed.
"It took over 20 years to connect the first billion subscribers, but only 40 months to connect the second billion," said The Mobile World Co-Founder John Tysoe. "The three billion milestone will be passed in July 2007, just two years on."
Analysts have forecast that 65 percent of all handsets made this year will be sold in emerging markets as manufacturers, such as Nokia of Finland and Motorola of the United States, push out low-cost phones and mobile phone operators cut call charges.
The figures cited in the survey take account of multiple mobile subscriptions by customers. Penetration in Europe has topped 100 percent of the population, with 666 million mobile connections.
"With handsets and services becoming ever more affordable, the prospect of a fully connected mobile world is becoming ever more real."
A record 240 million handsets were sold and 135 million new customers signed up to mobile phone networks in the quarter to the end of March, the report said.
In terms of connections, the last quarter was the third strongest in the industry's history after the fourth quarters of 2004 and 2006, when 142 million and 163 million signed up respectively.

UN: Half the world soon to be in cities


location based services

and half the world will soon own a mobile phone - an interesting coincidence - perhaps as we get more urbanized we need to be more connected ?



By LINDSAY TOLER, Associated Press Writer Wed Jun 27, 12:21 PM ET
LONDON - Most of humanity will be living in cities by next year, raising the threat of increased poverty and religious extremism unless the needs of growing urban populations are met, the U.N. said Wednesday.
Some 3.3 billion people will live in cities by 2008, a report by the U.N. population agency report said. By 2030, the number of city dwellers is expected to climb to 5 billion.
Without proper planning, cities across the globe face the treat of overwhelming poverty and limited opportunities for youth, said U.N. Population Fund Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid.
"In 2008, half of the world's population will be in urban areas, and we are not ready for them," said Obaid told The Associated Press in London.
A revival in religious interest has been a surprising characteristic of rapid urbanization, according to the report.
Urbanization is often associated with a shift toward secular values. But the growth of new religious movements — such as radical Islam in the Middle East, Pentecostal Christianity in Latin America and the cult of Shivaji in India — has been a primarily urban phenomena, the report said.
When cities fail to meet the needs of growing populations, religious beliefs tend to become extreme, said Obaid, who is also a U.N. undersecretary-general.
"Extremism is often a reaction to rapid and sudden change or to a feeling of exclusion and injustice, and the cities can be a basis for that if they are not well managed," Obaid said.
Smaller cities will absorb the bulk of urban growth, the report said.
"We're focusing on the megacities when the data tell us most of the movement will be coming to smaller cities of 500,000 or more," Obaid said.
Smaller cities may be more flexible in expanding their boundaries and adapting their policies, but they also have fewer resources and smaller governments than major cities accustomed to large migrant populations.
The population fund found that policy initiatives in smaller cities often aim to keep the poor out by limiting migration and cutting lower-income housing.
"Cities see poor people as a burden," Obaid said. "They should be seen as an asset."
"Investing in them in terms of shelter, education and so on would mean you have a good economic force that can work and create even further economic growth coming from cities," Obaid said.
Birth rates are driving urban population growth, rather than migration from rural areas, the report said. Family planning policies will be most effective in slowing that expansion, including reproductive health services and sex education, it said.
"Urban growth, in a sense, encourages low fertility because city people have access to information and access to services and can plan their families better," Obaid said. "In an urban economy, women need less children but (want children) with a better quality of life and better possibilities of education."
___

Google Maps Is Changing the Way We See the World

location based services


In 1765, a 22-year-old British naval officer named James Rennell set out to map the entire Indian subcontinent. Traveling with a small party of soldiers, he used the advanced technologies of the day: a compass and a distance-measuring wheel called a perambulator. During the six-year journey, one soldier was killed by a tiger, five were mauled by a leopard, and Rennell was wounded in an attack by angry locals. He survived, and his detailed maps and atlas, published in the 1780s, defined British understanding of India for generations. Years later, a British geographer wrote that, to Rennell, "blanks on the map of the world were eyesores." More than two centuries later, within the decidedly safer confines of Building 45 on Google's Mountain View, California, campus, John Hanke clicks the 3-foot image of Earth projected on his office wall and spins it around to India. Hanke, the director of Google Earth and Google Maps, zooms in for a closer look at Bangalore. At first, the city appeared in Google Earth as little more than a hi-res satellite photo. "Bangalore wasn't mapped on Google's products," he says, "and it really wasn't very well mapped, period."
Now, however, hundreds of small icons pop up on the screen. Pointing at one brings up a text bubble identifying a location of interest: a university, a racetrack, a library. An icon hovering over the Karnataka High Court calls up a photo of its bright red exterior and a link to an account of its long, distinguished history. Another, atop M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, links to a Wikipedia entry about the legendary cricket matches played there. "As you can see, it's very well mapped now," Hanke says, pulling up a photo of a Hindu temple.
The annotations weren't created by Google, nor by some official mapping agency. Instead, they are the products of a volunteer army of amateur cartographers. "It didn't take sophisticated software," Hanke says. "What it took was a substrate — the satellite imagery of Earth — in an accessible form and a simple authoring language for people to create and share stuff. Once that software existed, the urge to describe and annotate just took off."
Discovering the New World7 glimpses into the hyperlocal future.
The Internet of ThingsWhat if you could walk down an unfamiliar street, use your camera phone to take a picture of a building, and instantly know everything about it, from the architect to the list of tenants. The technology to make common objects clickable, like hyperlinked words on a Web site, is available today in the form of 2-D barcodes. These digital tags look like empty crossword puzzles. Users create them online, print them out, and paste them around the city. Then anyone with a phonecam can "click" on them. A program on the phone decodes the pattern and redirects the curious pedestrian to a Web page. One project, called Smartpox, is using these barcodes to build online communities that center around, for example, scavenger hunts and restaurant reviews. Members slap a barcode on a given establishment, and in-the-know passersby can get the dirt on its crème anglaise. At Semapedia.com, you can drop in any Wikipedia URL to instantly generate a 2-D barcode pointing to the corresponding entry.
A career in cartography used to be the prerogative of well-funded adventurers — men like Rennell or Lewis and Clark — with full government backup. Even after the advent of commercial satellite and aerial photography, the ability to make maps remained largely in the hands of specialists. Now, suddenly, mapmaking power is within the grasp of a 12-year-old. In the past two years, map providers like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have created tools that let anyone with an Internet connection layer their own geographic obsessions on top of ever-more-detailed road maps and satellite images. A host of collaborative annotation projects have appeared — not to mention tens of thousands of personal map mashups — that plot text, links, data, and even sounds onto every available blank space on the digital globe. It's become a sprawling, networked atlas — a "geoweb" that's expanding so quickly its outer edges are impossible to pin down.
There are the narrowly focused maps, like hidden mountain-biking trails, local restaurant favorites, and annotated travel guides. Then there are the more elaborate efforts, all of which "give people the power to create their own ground truth," says Mike Liebhold, a senior researcher specializing in geospatial technology at Silicon Valley's Institute for the Future. When a large fire broke out in Georgia in April, a resident quickly built a regularly updated map showing the burn areas. In Indonesia, for which Google still has no underlying road map, someone is tracing routes over satellite photos to create his own. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum recently released an annotated layer in Google Earth that displays the Darfur genocide in horrifying geographic detail, showing burned villages and linking to photos and videos.
if (typeof drawDropCap == "function") {
var arrExcludeDivs = new Array("article_itemlist");
drawDropCap("articletext", arrExcludeDivs);
}


Add this to:
Digg
Del.icio.us
Sphere
Full Page

Page:
1
2
3
4
5
next

User plane location architecture with mobile server for location based services


A “user plane” location system for implementing a location based service (“LBS”) such as enterprise fleet tracking includes a number of GPS-enabled wireless mobile units in communication with a wireless network. Location data is periodically transmitted from various “client” mobile units to a “server” mobile unit. The location data relates to the respective physical locations of the client mobile units, and may be determined from GPS signals received by the client mobile units. Once the server mobile unit receives the location data, the location data is processed for use in one or more LBS applications. This may include displaying the location data on a screen or other display of the server mobile unit, including displaying the location data in conjunction with map data. The use of a server mobile unit facilitates portability of the server functionality to

Global mobile use to pass 50 per cent mark

location based services

Global mobile phone use will pass the three billion mark, equivalent to half the world's population, for the first time in 2007 as mobile phone demand booms in China, India and Africa, a survey said.
From African farmers to Chinese factory workers, mobile operators will have notched up more than 3.25 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide by the end of the year, according to a report by UK-based telecoms analysis company The Mobile World.
Along with the Internet, the mobile phone has revolutionised communication, spreading from city whiz kids to Brazilian slum dwellers.
More than 1,000 new customers are effectively signing up for mobile phones every minute around the world, the survey showed.
"It took over 20 years to connect the first billion subscribers, but only 40 months to connect the second billion," said The Mobile World Co-Founder John Tysoe.
"The three billion milestone will be passed in July 2007, just two years on."
Analysts have forecast that 65 per cent of all handsets made this year will be sold in emerging markets as manufacturers, such as Nokia of Finland and Motorola of the United States, push out low-cost phones and mobile phone operators cut call charges.
The figures cited in the survey take account of multiple mobile subscriptions by customers.
Penetration in Europe has topped 100 per cent of the population, with 666 million mobile connections.
"With handsets and services becoming ever more affordable, the prospect of a fully connected mobile world is becoming ever more real," the report said.
A record 240 million handsets were sold and 135 million new customers signed up to mobile phone networks in the quarter to the end of March.
In terms of connections, the last quarter was the third strongest in the industry's history after the fourth quarters of 2004 and 2006, when 142 million and 163 million signed up respectively

Mobile Phones Threaten Dedicated Portable GPS Market

location based services

Christine Persaud
The portable GPS market has been enjoying phenomenal growth over the past year: the NPD Group reported in February that sales grew a massive 453 per cent in dollars and 923 per cent in units in 2006 in Canada; and 128 per cent to over US$476 million south of the border. However, high-tech research firm In-Stat says that, as navigation features become more common on mobile handsets, this category will threaten the continuing success of dedicated GPS units.
“For approximately US$10 per month, handset navigation offers similar, if not superior, functionality to Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs), at a lower price,” said the firm.
The obvious benefit portable units have over built-in vehicle systems is that they are easily transportable from car to car, and can even be used on-foot via their rechargeable, internal batteries. Mobile phones can offer these very same benefits without the person having to bring along a second gadget. According to In-Stat Analyst Stephanie Ethier, these benefits provide wireless service providers with an opportunity to capture market share from portable GPS manufacturers.
Mobile phones have a long way to go before they can compete with dedicates devices, whether it be portable GPS units, entry-level digital cameras, or portable audio/video players. But in future, we could very well see one, portable convergence device that “does it all”.
On the flip side, one multifunctional device could pose problems. What if you want to chat on the phone at the same time that you’re navigating on foot? The issue gets even more complicated when you add music and picture taking to the mix: would a person want to be restricted to only being able to perform one function at a time?
Nevertheless, in the near term, In-Stat says that the market for portable GPS devices will remain healthy, reaching 56 million units worldwide by 2011, up from 14 million in 2006. This will be due, in large part, to falling prices (entry-level models are now available for well under $200), enhanced features, stronger consumer awareness, and increased marketing and promotion. As for mobile phone navigation, customers are likely still warming up to the feature.
The report, entitled Personal Navigation Devices: Worldwide Shipment Growth to Slow as Handset Navigation Arrives, includes forecasts for unit shipments, average sales prices, and revenue through 2011. It also includes results from a large-scale survey of consumer attitudes toward portable GPS units and mobile handset navigation applications.

Published: 6/25/2007 5:31:45

The Future of Location Based Services

Location Based Services (LBS) and Local Search (show me pizza places near here) have been going to be the next big thing for some time now. Some attribute the failure of LBS to the ‘walled gardens’ that mobile phone networks operate within, a factor magnified within the UK by the comparitively high cost of data calls compared to the US.
Local Search has been a lot more successful (if you define success as numbers of users), in that I can search for the nearest cashpoint to my current location and usually find what I am looking for. Critics of Local Search suggest that it will ‘never take off’ because people know what is in their area and don’t need the Internet to tell them.
There is some sense in both of these standpoints. The high cost of data calls, does diminish the value of mobile LBS for the consumer. I do where the nearest cashpoint to my house is. A problem with LBS is complexity: it seems to be difficuilt to to provide a service that tells me what I want to know about where I am. This complexity goes hand-in-hand with the walled gardens of the mobile operators - its in the best interests of a service provider to make their customers think the job they are doing is incredibly difficuilt - it adds value to their service.
The LBS question - what is there that I want, near where I am - isn’t a particularly complex one. We talked about some of this stuff at Where Camp a few weeks ago, and a load of smart people thought of some complex solutions to the problem. The solution isn’t a complex one. I know loads about cash points here, and I am happy to tell someone who wants to know about cashpoints here everything I know, on the same terms that I am happy to give my knowledge to Twitter Bot. You can now query Multimap’s location data by sending a Twitter to their bot who talks to their own API and replies, for example:

Upcoming N95 firmware to enables AGPS?!

location based services


?It seems that new firmware (12.0.013 / 19.6.2007) doesn't brings huge improvements, at least in terms of the free RAM what is expectable after all but from other hand there is a huge improvement in GPS part, the addition of the AGPS feature will allows much faster locking the satellites and stronger fixes all round. Assisted GPS, or A-GPS, is a technology that uses an assistance server to cut down the time needed to determine a location using GPS. It is useful in urban areas, when the user is located in "urban canyons", under heavy tree cover, or even indoors. It is becoming more common and it's commonly associated with Location Based Services (LBS) over cellular networks.A stand-alone GPS receiver (a) must search for satellite signals and decode the satellite navigation messages before computing its position - tasks which require strong signals and additional processing time. A cellular telephone network can assist a GPS receiver (b) by providing an initial approximate position of the receiver and the decoded satellite ephemeris and clock information. The receiver can therefore utilize weaker signals and also more quickly determine its position.Assisted-GPS requires a worldwide tracking network for obtaining the navigation messages of all satellites and data processing hubs along with a server which feeds data to a Serving Mobile Location Center (SMLC) or Mobile Position Center (MPC) operated by a network service provider. Data is sent to individual cell phones using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and the Short Messaging Service (SMS).SOURCE: SYMBIAN-FREAK
tags: actualidade, blog, blogs, chhaya, cnm, curiosidades, diário, eagle-slayor, ericsson, informatica, interessante, meraj, merajnet, nokia, notícias, novidades, pensamentos, samsung, sociedade, sony, symbian, tecnologia, telemoveis, vida
published by Meraj Chhaya às 16

GPS Apps Lead The Way At BREW

location based services


Posted by Eric Zeman, Jun 21, 2007 06:29 PM
One thing there is no shortage of at the BREW conference in San Diego is GPS and LBS offerings. Meet six companies who want to make sure you never have to rely on a gas station attendant for directions again.
Just for my own gratification, I have to ask: Has anyone ever received good directions from a gas station attendant? I certainly have not. While my case of Directile Dysfunction (lostus oftenus) isn't too severe, I admit I've had to resort to that oft-reviled source of misinformation, the gas station attendant. Too often the 'directions' were no good and sometimes flat-out wrong. Promising to cure my affliction are a handful of companies at BREW who are happy to lead the way to wherever it is that you happen to be going.
Autodesk: This company offers a host of different GPS-based services for carriers to take advantage of, such as Family Minder to help keep the tabs on the kids, and Insight, which helps businesses keep track of their mobile assets in real-time. The Insight product is great for the enterprise that needs to keep a watchful eye on a mobile workforce. Not only does it provide driving directions for workers behind the wheel, it also lets managers make smart dispatch decisions based on real-time mapping.
deCarta: deCarta is all about powering things behind the scenes. Its hosted Web services lets developers location-enable their applications with features such as fluid maps, routes and driving directions, address lookup and local searches.
Garmin: Since Yao Ming isn't available to hand out dedicated GPS units to every couple that gets lost, Garmin has created a mobile phone version of its navigation service. Once users punch in their destination, Garmin does the rest. It formulates the quickest route and provides voice prompts to get you there.
Networks in Motion: NIM may not be a household name, but it sure helps you find directions from your house to anywhere else. It also offers location-based geocoding to pictures taken with cell phones for mobile photo journals, as well as a Family Finder program to make sure grandma hasn't wandered off again.
Tele Atlas: Tele Atlas is another under-the-hood provider of mapping services. Most of the other services listed in this article probably rely on Tele Atlas maps. That's because Tele Atlas has 22 million points of interest, real-time and predictive traffic information, and 64 countries mapped into its database.
Trimble: Trimble Outdoors is a suite of GPS applications for cell phones that work as well off the beaten path as on. Not restricted to the nation's streets and highways, Trimble Outdoors works for hikers and outdoor enthusiasts with its off-road navigation, GeocacheNavigator and AllSportGPS

AGIS Mobile Communication & Collaboration Software Being Used by Naval Coastal Warfare Squadron

location based services


Consumer Version of AGIS Software Has Just Been Introduced

JUPITER, Fla., June 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced Ground Information Systems' (AGIS) many-to-many mobile communication software -- now in use by the U.S. Navy's Coastal Warfare Squadron (N.C.W.S.) to protect shipping, naval bases, and harbors worldwide -- is now available for the first time to the general public as a breakthrough Location Based Services (LBS) software product.
Specialist First-Class Petty Officer Harry Colbert (pictured) -- part of an elite U.S. Navy-Marine Corps team -- uses AGIS mobile collaboration software in New York City during 2007 Fleet Week festivities. He is communicating with his NCWS team using AGIS software on a Microsoft-compatible PDA from alongside his command center aboard the USS WASP (LHD-1). USS WASP is the lead ship of an all-new class of multipurpose Navy-Marine Corps amphibious assault ships.
AGIS systems automatically create a communications network that provides all users a Common Operational Picture (COP). All network participants see each other's location and can call, and send alerts, text, photographs and even video by simply touching the display. All functions are accomplished within the same application program. AGIS creates the PC and PDA network using cellular, WiFi mesh networks or land line or a combination of these communications.
Patented Touch2Call(R) lets AGIS users call or conference others by simply touching screen displayed GPS location symbols the other participants on the display, without minimizing or exiting to a call function.
For more information and free downloads, see http://www.agisinc.com/ Website: http://www.agisinc.com/

Magellan(R) Maestro(TM) GPS Devices Offered

location based services

Personal Navigation Units Loaded With AAA Travel Expertise and AAA Roadside Assistance

LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwire - June 21, 2007) - As the summer vacation driving season begins, motorists can have the Automobile Club of Southern California's travel expertise and roadside help at their fingertips with the new Magellan® Maestro™ GPS personal navigation devices that come loaded exclusively with AAA travel information and AAA roadside assistance.

Travelers can find their way quickly and easily to AAA-inspected and Diamond rated hotels and restaurants, AAA-approved auto repair facilities, and AAA Show Your Card & Save® retail locations where member discounts are offered.

Attractions and events, campgrounds, local Auto Club offices and AAA offices nationwide also are provided on Magellan® Maestro™ devices. In addition, they are the only personal GPS navigation units sold in the U.S. that have a one-touch button to help summon the Auto Club-AAA Roadside Assistance. The unit displays the AAA phone number and the driver's street location on the devices. For motorists who own a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone, the Magellan® Maestro™ device will call AAA for them. A motorist's location also is displayed if a 9-1-1 call is made.

The Magellan® units equipped with AAA travel information and AAA Roadside Assistance make trip-planning and road travel easier. They help motorists not to get lost in unfamiliar areas, find alternate routes around traffic congestion, and save gasoline and time by selecting the shortest route to their destination. The GPS units also provide real-time information about a driver's vehicle location, travel direction and speed, said the Auto Club's Senior Vice President of Marketing, Product Management & Publishing Wendy Sabins.

Auto Club members exclusively will receive a 15% SYC&S® discount on accessories purchased from Magellan®; a free second-year warranty on designated Magellan® Maestro™ units; and free AAA data updates for the life of the Magellan® Maestro™ warranty. Auto Club members can get more information about these discounts and benefits at www.AAA.com/gps.

"The Magellan® Maestro™ units offer a simple, user-friendly design that requires minimal key strokes. The clutter-free menu and map screens with clear and crisp icons and graphics are easy for drivers to see in all lighting. Prioritized menu icons allow drivers' faster access to their most frequently used features, which greatly helps motorists use the unit responsibly," said Sabins. "The units are portable and, like your AAA membership, can go with you from car to car," she added.

Auto Club members and non-members may purchase the Magellan® Maestro™ GPS personal navigation units at national retailers Circuit City and Fry's Electronics. Auto Club members may purchase these units at www.AAA.com/g

SiRF Technology to Acquire Centrality Communications to Strengthen its Multifunction Location Platform Strategy

   Navigation and Multimedia SoCs broaden SiRF's Multifunction Offerings

   SAN JOSE, Calif., June 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SiRF Technology
Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: SIRF), a leading provider of GPS-enabled silicon
and premium software location platforms, today announced that it has signed
a definitive agreement to acquire Centrality Communications Inc, a leading
developer of navigation processor solutions for mobile navigation devices,
for a total consideration of $283 million in stock and cash.
   Founded in 1999, Centrality has developed a range of system on a chip
(SoC) offerings that bring high quality navigation and multimedia
experience to consumers in mobile environments. Headquartered in Redwood
City, California, Centrality has more than 190 employees and a worldwide
presence with its main development center in Shanghai, China and branch
offices in Taipei, Seoul and Brussels.
   Centrality's Atlas(TM) and Titan(TM) family of navigation processors
together deliver the new standard in features and value for the navigation
infotainment systems (NIS) market. By leveraging Centrality's suite of
reference platforms, leading NIS manufacturers can deliver compelling
products and services to market quickly.
   "World class multifunction SoC platform expertise is a significant
differentiator for us, especially as we address the emerging needs of
portable navigation, automotive and consumer markets with value-added
products," said Dr. Michael Canning, president and chief executive officer
of SiRF. "Centrality's team has a proven track record of delivering
innovative solutions to market and we believe that the combined entity can
provide a very attractive product portfolio to address the price
performance and functionality needs of our customers. In addition, the
Shanghai Center will enable us to scale our development activities rapidly
and significantly strengthen our capabilities to address the fast-growing
China market."
   With its primary focus on portable navigation-infotainment devices,
Centrality has developed a range of platforms centered on enhancing the
location, information and entertainment experience of consumers. Based on a
proprietary dual-core processor architecture, these SoCs have integrated
GPS, DSP, graphics and multimedia accelerators, providing breakthrough
performance while achieving lower cost. While the Atlas(TM) family focuses
on high performance value solutions, the Titan(TM) platform is designed for
the highest end solutions.
   "Centrality has developed a leading innovative family of SoC processors
for navigation infotainment systems and these combined with SiRF's overall
location platform market leadership, global brand recognition, and
worldwide support infrastructure opens up vast opportunities for our
platforms," said Rob Baxter, president and chief executive officer of
Centrality. "Joining forces with SiRF enables us to combine our SoC
platform and media expertise with SiRF's location and multifunction radio
expertise, further strengthening our technology leadership position and
enabling us to bring more value-added products to market quickly."
   Centrality delivers platforms with full reference design support in
order to ensure that customers enjoy the best system performance, shortest
time-to- market and enhanced product differentiation. As a leading provider
of embedded GPS platforms, Centrality supports multiple operating system
environments to address customer needs. With a large number of fully
qualified ODM customers, Centrality can help bring better and more
innovative products to market faster.
   "SiRF and Centrality have a shared vision of bringing the benefits of
location information to mainstream consumers through innovations. We
believe that there is a large potential market opportunity for mobile
consumer devices with convergence of location, entertainment and wireless
communications capabilities," said Kanwar Chadha, founder and vice
president of marketing for SiRF. "Our combined expertise can deliver very
powerful end-to-end multifunction location platforms to location-enable a
broad range of new devices and services and to help our customers,
operators and content partners add more value to their offerings while
significantly enhancing the consumer experience."
   Under the terms of the Agreement, in exchange for all of the
outstanding capital stock of Centrality, including equity awards, SiRF has
agreed to pay $283 million in a combination of cash and shares of SiRF
Common Stock. The boards of directors of both companies have approved the
merger. Completion of this transaction is subject to customary closing
conditions and is expected to close next quarter.
   Conference Call Details
   SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc. will host conference call at 5:00PM
EDT/2:00PM PDT today, June 21, to discuss this acquisition. The conference
call will be webcast live via the Internet in the investor relations
section of the SiRF website at http://www.sirf.com. Interested parties
should access the site, downloading any necessary audio software, at least
ten minutes prior to the call. An archived webcast replay of the call will
be available at the web site for twelve months.
   To listen to the call, please dial (800) 896-8445 (domestic) or (785)
830-1916 (international) approximately 10 minutes prior to the start time.
The conference ID is: SIRF. A telephonic replay will be available
approximately two hours following the call and will remain available for
one week. The telephone playback of the conference call can be accessed by
dialing (800) 839-5576.
   About SiRF Technology
   SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc. develops and markets semiconductor and
software products that are designed to enabled location-awareness utilizing
GPS and other location technologies, enhanced by wireless connectively
capabilities such as Bluetooth, for high-volume mobile consumer devices and
commercial applications. SiRF's technology has been integrated into mobile
consumer devices such as automobile navigation systems, mobile phones,
PDAs, GPS-based peripherals and handheld GPS navigation devices, and into
commercial applications such as location servers, asset tracking devices
and fleet management systems. SiRF markets and sells its products in three
target platforms: wireless handheld devices, such as mobile phones;
automotive electronics systems, including navigation and telematics
systems; and consumer and compute devices, including personal digital
assistants, notebook computers, recreational GPS handhelds, mobile gaming
machines, digital cameras and watches. Founded in 1995, SiRF is
headquartered in San Jose, California, and has sales offices, design
centers and research facilities around the world. The company trades on the
NASDAQ Stock Exchange under the symbol SIRF. Additional information about
SiRF and its location technology solutions can be found at
http://www.sirf.com.
   About Centrality Communications, Inc.
   Centrality is a leading developer of semiconductor system solutions for
GPS navigation products. Headquartered in Redwood City, California,
Centrality also has a worldwide presence with branch offices in Shanghai,
Taipei, Seoul, Caymans and Brussels. Centrality's Atlas(TM) and Titan(TM)
family of navigation processors together deliver the new standard in
features and value for the navigation infotainment systems (NIS) market. By
leveraging Centrality's suite of reference platforms, leading NIS
manufacturers can deliver compelling products and services to market
quickly. For more information, please visit: http://www.centralitynav.com .
   Forward-Looking Statements:
   Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set
forth in this press release, including, but not limited to, statements
regarding the benefits of the combined company, including its product
portofolio, price-performance-functionality, our ability scale our
development activity in Shanghai and our ability to strenthen our position
in the China market, the benefits of the Titan platform, our ability to
strengthen Centrality's technology position and bring products to market
quickly, the market opportunity for mobile consumer devices, ability of
Centrality to strengthen SiRF's multifunction location platform strategy,
its world class multifunction SoC platform expertise and the anticipated
closing of the acquisition are forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such
as "to," "being," "possible," "may," "will," "addresses," "designed to,"
"provide," "believe," and similar expressions are intended to identify
forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future
performance and should not be considered as an indication of future
performance. SiRF's actual results could differ materially from those
discussed in these forward-looking statements as a result of risks and
uncertainties, including, among others, the risk that we may not realize
the anticipated benefits of this acquisition, risks associated with
acquisitions, including the ability to successfully integrate the acquired
technologies or operations, potential diversion of management's attention
and our ability to retain key employees of acquired businesses, demand and
market acceptance for our products and those of our customers, the market
for GPS-based location awareness, risks associated with the semiconductor
industry and other risks and uncertainties discussed in the Company's
Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2007 and from
time to time in SiRF's SEC reports. These forward-looking statements speak
only as of the date hereof. We do not undertake any obligation to update
forward-looking statements.

SOURC

Ease of Use and Price of Navigation Systems Emerge as Key Factors Influencing Purchase Decision

location based services

20 giugno 2007

A recent Frost & Sullivan study offers an insight into the willingness of customers to pay for navigation systems and features. This study was based on a sample size of 1,974 interviews conducted in the European markets of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain. The respondents included current owners of navigation devices (fixed and portable) and non-owners interested in purchasing one in the future.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (www.automotive.frost.com), Consumer Desirability & Willingness to Pay for Navigation Systems and Features, finds that the sales in the European market for navigation systems accounted for over 10 million units in 2005 and estimates this to reach 35 million units by 2010.
If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides manufacturers, end users, and other industry participants with an overview of the latest analysis of Consumer Desirability & Willingness to Pay for Navigation Systems and Features, send an e-mail to Michael Banks, Corporate Communications at michael.banks@frost.com with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, e-mail address, city, state, and country. We will send you the information by e-mail upon receipt of the above information.
"Navigation systems have become increasingly affordable and are now the target of consumer electronics participants who view the automotive market as an untapped opportunity," note Frost & Sullivan Research Analysts Praveen Chandrasekhar and Franck Leveque. "Convenience, efficiency and the need to avoid using paper maps seem to be driving interest in navigation systems."
Fifty nine per cent of non-navigation users interviewed appeared interested in purchasing a navigation system in the future. However, respondents in the United Kingdom were not interested in navigation systems, which were considered an unsafe option when compared to multi-maps.
Tom Tom had the highest brand awareness (both aided and unaided) amongst users and non-users of navigation systems across the European countries surveyed. In terms of ownership, Tom Tom had the highest penetration of navigation systems, followed by Sony, Blaupunkt, Navman, Garmin and Acer.
Respondents rated ease of use (interface with the system) as the most important factor in their decision to purchase a navigation system, followed closely by the cost of the system. "Ease of installation was also an important consideration, which suggests that potential customers need a hands-on demonstration prior to purchase," states Chandrasekhar. "Vehicle manufacturers and suppliers would benefit from educating consumers at their dealerships and explain who navigation systems work."
According to the interviews, consumer electronic retailers were found to be the preferred purchase channel, which points to the fact that respondents need to touch and feel the system prior to purchase. Whilst almost 60 per cent of fixed system owners were purchased at the car dealership, there were four key purchase channels for portable owners, which consisted of consumer electronics stores, the Internet, car accessory shops and department stores.
"Consumers realise the benefit of embedded navigation systems and are ready to pay 2 to 3 times over and above the price of a portable device. But clearly the mass market cannot stomach prices of EUR1,500 to EUR2,000 or even more," comments Leveque. "In this price-centric market, portable systems are set to dominate, given their obvious price advantages."

Print version Send to a friend Write your comment »

US general laments Google Earth capability

location based services

Posted 2 hours 29 minutes ago
The head of US Air Force intelligence and surveillance says data available commercially through online mapping software such as Google Earth poses a danger to security but cannot be rolled back.
"To talk about danger ... really is irrelevant because it's there," said Lieutenant General David Deptula, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
"No one's going to undo commercial satellite imagery," he told reporters in Washington.
Lt Gen Deptula cited Google's Google Earth, which gives Web users an astronaut's view of the earth and allows them to zoom down to street level. He said it had provided anyone with a credit card the ability to get a picture of any place on earth.
"It is huge," he said. "It's something that was a closely guarded secret not that long ago and now everybody's got access to it."
Asked if the US military might try to implement restrictions or blackouts on imagery of some areas, Lt Gen Deptula said he was not aware of such an attempt.
"I don't want to speak to specifics, but not that I'm aware of," he said.
Instead, governments are trying to mitigate the effect through camouflage, concealment and deception, he said, providing no other details.
-Reuters
Tags:

Sony Ericsson announces GPS accessory

location based services

Sony Ericsson HGE-100
Yesterday night in Berlin, Sony Ericsson announced the HGE-100, a GPS accessory doubling as a hands free kit. Plugging through the phone's connector, this light and small GPS (48g - 61mm x 28mm) enables satellite navigation and sport monitoring on compatible phones (Sony Ericsson mobile phones with Java support from K800 onwards). The HGE-100 will be available during the third quarter 2007 for around €70. While few information are available today, it seems that the satellite navigation software does not offer a 2D or 3D display of the route, but rather text and voice instructions, the latter given through the headset. Sport enthusiasts can also “Use the GPS Enabler as their personal trainer by using the ‘Tracker' GPS sports application installed within the HGE-100. It monitors speed, distance, route and calorie burn, recording and analysing data”, said Sony Ericsson.

The positioning of this product is original, definitely targeting younger people than the current users of satellite navigation systems. As a matter of fact the car environment is not the first place where to use this product, but rather on foot, cycle or even bus, as mentioned in the press release.

Sony Ericsson chooses Wayfinder for its new navigation solution

location based services

Confirming our predictions made two months ago (read our article here 125) Paul Morisson, a spokesperson at Sony Ericsson revealed us today his company has chosen Wayfinder as a supplier for its off-board navigation solution bundled with its GPS accessory HGE-100 launched last week (see here 223). This software does not feature 2D or 3D on screen navigation but turn by turn text commands and voice guidance. Tele Atlas will be the map provider for this software that includes map coverage for Europe, North America and other territories covered by TeleAtlas today.

Text navigation
Magnus Nilsson, CEO of Wayfinder reached today over the phone was obviously delighted to be the provider of this first Sony Ericsson navigation solution, but he would not further comment this deal. Wayfinder also announced last week to have raised US$ 10.7 million on the market. “It is encouraging that all major owners have demonstrated their continued commitment to the company by subscribing for their shares and underwriting additional amounts. The capital provides Wayfinder Systems with a stable financial position and the necessary resources required for capitalizing on the strong market growth expected in the coming period" said Magnus Nilsson. With the acquisition of Webraska by Sanef, the funding of Jentro by US venture capital firm NEA, and this new client and funding for Wayfinder, the European off-board navigation market has been moving a step forward in the recent weeks; nevertheless the interest of European mobile phone users for such solutions has still to be confirmed.
Thursday 21st June 2007