CTIA 2006: New Nokia GPS mobile phone
location based services
The final Nokia mobile phone announcement at CTIA 2006 is the new Nokia 6175i (the other two Nokia phones in the picture are the Nokia 2365i and 2385i). The 6175i was announced at the same time as the Nokia 2365i and 2385i, but I thought it deserved a little more attention, as it's a mid-tier phone with a few more features than its cheaper siblings. As well as the usual mid-range wizardry you'd expect (MP3 player, FM radio, bluetooth, 1.3 megapixel camera, CDMA), the Nokia 6175i also comes with a built-in GPS receiver, and a variety of location-based applications to support it. Surprisingly, this feature seems to have drawn little attention, and even Nokia themselves aren't exactly shouting about it. More news on how good it is when the phone is launched in the second half of 2006.
Nokia 6175iFrom the press release: Combining a sleek and sophisticated internal-antenna design with a wide array of advanced mobile features, the mid-tier Nokia 6175i fold-style phone is positioned to appeal to wireless customers wanting a stylish, well-featured mobile phone that is intuitive and pocketable. The integrated 1.3 megapixel camera introduces to the Nokia CDMA portfolio a full-screen portrait viewfinder that takes full advantage of the 262,000 color 128 x 160 pixel TFT internal display.
High-resolution images and videos, digitally zoomed up to 4x, can be sent via multimedia messaging on compatible networks or transferred to a PC using Bluetooth technology or an optional USB cable. Photo printing is simplified with the inclusion of PictBridge compatibility, ensuring easy connection to a variety of PictBridge-enabled printing devices. Consimers can stay plugged in to their music with a built-in stereo FM radio or by streaming audio and video in a variety of formats. The Nokia 6175i phone also supports a variety of location-based services that utilize its integrated GPS receiver. Only 3.4 ounces, the Nokia 6175i phone offers up to 3.5 hours of digital talk time or up to 14 days of standby time.
Posted on Wednesday, April 5th, 2006 at 11:00 pm by admin Filed under Phones, Nokia, Events, Global Phones, CTIA 2006
comments (0) trackback
-->
Related Articles
Get set for CTIA 2006
CTIA 2006: Motorola V3i now in Colour
CTIA 2006: .mobi domain to go live on May 22nd
CTIA 2006: Two new low cost Nokias - the Nokia 2365i and 2865i
CTIA 2006: Huge Samsung announcements
Read the latest articles on the Homepage
Leave a Reply
Thursday, April 06, 2006
KPMG International [press]:
location based services
"KPMG International: time to rethink the business model for mobile converged services
Report suggests time is right to switch revenue focus from consumers to third party advertisers.
Converged services now expected but customers unlikely to pay a premium.
The rapid strides which cell phone service providers are making in offering converged multi-media services to their customers is likely to necessitate an urgent rethink of their basic business models, states a survey out today.
The report from KPMG International claims that the time has come for service providers to switch from a customer-based business model to a model which focuses more on presenting a stable customer base to third party advertisers and sponsors. The survey of 3576 cellular phone owners worldwide revealed that consumers see absolutely no limits in terms of what services can be offered via their mobile handsets. However, almost 40 percent claimed that they would not be prepared to pay a premium over and above their current bill to receive these services.
Therefore, KPMG International claims that attempting to exploit converged services purely to squeeze more cash out of consumers on a traditional subscription model will not work. Cell phone companies would find themselves offering upgraded content but without necessarily being able to secure the premium subscription rates which they would hope for.
Sean Collins, Global Chair of KPMG�s Communications practice and partner in the U.K. firm, explained: �Mobile service providers will need to stop thinking of converged services purely as a revenue booster. Instead, they should consider them as a churn reduction tool, allowing them to present a much more stable, loyal subscriber base which should be attractive to advertisers and digital commerce partners. In its most basic terms, it�s a case of moving from a "
location based services
"KPMG International: time to rethink the business model for mobile converged services
Report suggests time is right to switch revenue focus from consumers to third party advertisers.
Converged services now expected but customers unlikely to pay a premium.
The rapid strides which cell phone service providers are making in offering converged multi-media services to their customers is likely to necessitate an urgent rethink of their basic business models, states a survey out today.
The report from KPMG International claims that the time has come for service providers to switch from a customer-based business model to a model which focuses more on presenting a stable customer base to third party advertisers and sponsors. The survey of 3576 cellular phone owners worldwide revealed that consumers see absolutely no limits in terms of what services can be offered via their mobile handsets. However, almost 40 percent claimed that they would not be prepared to pay a premium over and above their current bill to receive these services.
Therefore, KPMG International claims that attempting to exploit converged services purely to squeeze more cash out of consumers on a traditional subscription model will not work. Cell phone companies would find themselves offering upgraded content but without necessarily being able to secure the premium subscription rates which they would hope for.
Sean Collins, Global Chair of KPMG�s Communications practice and partner in the U.K. firm, explained: �Mobile service providers will need to stop thinking of converged services purely as a revenue booster. Instead, they should consider them as a churn reduction tool, allowing them to present a much more stable, loyal subscriber base which should be attractive to advertisers and digital commerce partners. In its most basic terms, it�s a case of moving from a "
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
LOC-AID Treasure Named Semi-Finalist in Navteq 2006 Global LBS Challenge
location based services
BOCA RATON, FL April 5, 2006 - LOC-AID Technologies Inc., a leader in location-based services (LBS) and innovator of end-to-end location aggregation, announced today that LOC-AID Treasure has been named a semi-finalist of the 2006 Navteq Global Challenge in the Gaming category.
“LOC-AID Technologies is excited to have been named a semi-finalist for the last two years with its LOC-AID Suite of LBS applications”, said David Allen, vice president of marketing for LOC-AID Technologies. LOC-AID Treasure offers a fun and exciting way to introduce LBS services to enterprise customers as well as to the individual consumer. “Besides bringing a new technology to the gaming space, the concept of using an interactive, location-driven game is a powerful marketing and brand awareness device.”
During the 2005 Navteq Global LBS Challenge, LOC-AID People won first place in the Peer-to-Peer/Find Me category. LOC-AID continues to drive the LBS market-place with innovative features and functions.
About LOC-AID Technologies
LOC-AID, based in Boca Raton FL, has developed a suite of award-winning location-based services (LBS) solutions, which include Friend Finder, Social Networking, Gaming and Workforce Management, as well as creating the first fully integrated LBS aggregation Gateway. LOC-AID's current LBS offerings are available for download through the Telefonica (Movistar), Iusacell and Unefon networks, and will launch in the U.S. in 2006. For more information, visit www.loc-aid.net.
location based services
BOCA RATON, FL April 5, 2006 - LOC-AID Technologies Inc., a leader in location-based services (LBS) and innovator of end-to-end location aggregation, announced today that LOC-AID Treasure has been named a semi-finalist of the 2006 Navteq Global Challenge in the Gaming category.
“LOC-AID Technologies is excited to have been named a semi-finalist for the last two years with its LOC-AID Suite of LBS applications”, said David Allen, vice president of marketing for LOC-AID Technologies. LOC-AID Treasure offers a fun and exciting way to introduce LBS services to enterprise customers as well as to the individual consumer. “Besides bringing a new technology to the gaming space, the concept of using an interactive, location-driven game is a powerful marketing and brand awareness device.”
During the 2005 Navteq Global LBS Challenge, LOC-AID People won first place in the Peer-to-Peer/Find Me category. LOC-AID continues to drive the LBS market-place with innovative features and functions.
About LOC-AID Technologies
LOC-AID, based in Boca Raton FL, has developed a suite of award-winning location-based services (LBS) solutions, which include Friend Finder, Social Networking, Gaming and Workforce Management, as well as creating the first fully integrated LBS aggregation Gateway. LOC-AID's current LBS offerings are available for download through the Telefonica (Movistar), Iusacell and Unefon networks, and will launch in the U.S. in 2006. For more information, visit www.loc-aid.net.
Intrado Extends Hosted User-Plane Solution to LBS Application Provider Market; Solution Bundles User-Plane Functionality and LBS Applications for Rapid Deployment of Location-Based Services
location based services
LONGMONT, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 5, 2006--Intrado Inc., a global provider of integrated data and telecommunications solutions, today announced the availability of the Intrado(R) User-Plane Client Gateway. The User-Plane Client Gateway lets LBS application providers bundle applications with Intrado's hosted user-plane functionality to rapidly deploy a complete LBS solution within a wireless carrier's network. It enables application providers to be the single point of connectivity to the wireless carrier for location-based applications and IS-801-1 traffic, helping to streamline location requests.
The User-Plane Client Gateway is compatible with all BREW and Java applications and features proven A-GPS technology -- resulting in precise and reliable location coordinates. Because of its standards-based architecture, the Hosted User-Plane PDE can be easily integrated into any LBS application provider's IP network. It requires an IP network device physically located in the provider's network to forward all IS-801-1 requests to the Intrado Hosted User-Plane PDE. The IS-801-1 responses are then forwarded to the originating device in the carrier's network through the application provider.
"We're leveraging our Hosted User-Plane PDE solution to help LBS application providers drive down the cost and complexity of bringing location products to market through the carrier of their choice," said Monica Marics, Intrado vice president of product marketing. "The User-Plane Client Gateway provides a very flexible business model to accommodate all types of providers."
Intrado will be demonstrating several location-based applications compatible with its Hosted User-Plane PDE solution at booth #6335 during the CTIA WIRELESS 2006 event April 5-7 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Intrado senior technical officer John Snapp has been chosen to speak during the CTIA Wireless event on April 6, 2006. Snapp will join a group of location-based services experts on a panel titled "LBS - Where is the Industry on Location Based Services?" which examines the technology used in mobile LBS and important applications which are being utilized in enterprise and consumer arenas.
About Intrado
For more than two decades, telecommunications providers, public safety organizations and government agencies have turned to Intrado, a subsidiary of West Corporation, for their communications needs. Intrado provides the core of the nation's 9-1-1 network and delivers innovative solutions to communications service providers and public safety organizations, including complex data management, network transactions, wireless data services and notification services. The company's unparalleled industry knowledge and experience reduce the effort, cost and time associated with providing reliable information for 9-1-1, safety and mobility applications. Additional information on Intrado, its products and services, and past press releases can be found at the Company's Web site: www.intrado.com.
About West Corporation
West Corporation is a leading provider of outsourced communication solutions to many of the world's largest companies, organizations and government agencies. West helps its clients communicate effectively, maximize the value of their customer relationships and drive greater profitability from every interaction. The company's integrated suite of customized solutions includes customer acquisition, customer care, automated voice services, emergency communications, conferencing, and accounts receivable management services.
Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, West has a team of over 28,000 employees based in North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit http://www.west.com.
Contacts
Ketchum PR for Intrado Inc.
Alexis Braden, 415-984-6164
alexis.braden@ketchum.com
location based services
LONGMONT, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 5, 2006--Intrado Inc., a global provider of integrated data and telecommunications solutions, today announced the availability of the Intrado(R) User-Plane Client Gateway. The User-Plane Client Gateway lets LBS application providers bundle applications with Intrado's hosted user-plane functionality to rapidly deploy a complete LBS solution within a wireless carrier's network. It enables application providers to be the single point of connectivity to the wireless carrier for location-based applications and IS-801-1 traffic, helping to streamline location requests.
The User-Plane Client Gateway is compatible with all BREW and Java applications and features proven A-GPS technology -- resulting in precise and reliable location coordinates. Because of its standards-based architecture, the Hosted User-Plane PDE can be easily integrated into any LBS application provider's IP network. It requires an IP network device physically located in the provider's network to forward all IS-801-1 requests to the Intrado Hosted User-Plane PDE. The IS-801-1 responses are then forwarded to the originating device in the carrier's network through the application provider.
"We're leveraging our Hosted User-Plane PDE solution to help LBS application providers drive down the cost and complexity of bringing location products to market through the carrier of their choice," said Monica Marics, Intrado vice president of product marketing. "The User-Plane Client Gateway provides a very flexible business model to accommodate all types of providers."
Intrado will be demonstrating several location-based applications compatible with its Hosted User-Plane PDE solution at booth #6335 during the CTIA WIRELESS 2006 event April 5-7 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Intrado senior technical officer John Snapp has been chosen to speak during the CTIA Wireless event on April 6, 2006. Snapp will join a group of location-based services experts on a panel titled "LBS - Where is the Industry on Location Based Services?" which examines the technology used in mobile LBS and important applications which are being utilized in enterprise and consumer arenas.
About Intrado
For more than two decades, telecommunications providers, public safety organizations and government agencies have turned to Intrado, a subsidiary of West Corporation, for their communications needs. Intrado provides the core of the nation's 9-1-1 network and delivers innovative solutions to communications service providers and public safety organizations, including complex data management, network transactions, wireless data services and notification services. The company's unparalleled industry knowledge and experience reduce the effort, cost and time associated with providing reliable information for 9-1-1, safety and mobility applications. Additional information on Intrado, its products and services, and past press releases can be found at the Company's Web site: www.intrado.com.
About West Corporation
West Corporation is a leading provider of outsourced communication solutions to many of the world's largest companies, organizations and government agencies. West helps its clients communicate effectively, maximize the value of their customer relationships and drive greater profitability from every interaction. The company's integrated suite of customized solutions includes customer acquisition, customer care, automated voice services, emergency communications, conferencing, and accounts receivable management services.
Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, West has a team of over 28,000 employees based in North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit http://www.west.com.
Contacts
Ketchum PR for Intrado Inc.
Alexis Braden, 415-984-6164
alexis.braden@ketchum.com
TCS Unveils Two New Location-Based Services at CTIA
location based services
TCS Places" Identifies Local Services and Their Precise Locations; "TCS Handset Locator" Finds Missing Handsets Instantly via the Web
LAS VEGAS, NV -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 04/05/2006 -- CTIA Booth 1635 -- TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. (TCS) (NASDAQ: TSYS), a leading provider of mission-critical wireless communications, today announced the availability of TCS Places and TCS Handset Locator, two new services that wireless carriers and Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) can offer to their subscribers and which leverage the carrier's location infrastructure.
TCS Places is an innovative service that provides the means for subscribers to have instant access to their content and services while "on-the-go." Newspapers, travel services, local content providers and media companies can now offer location-relevant content, based on a subscriber's precise location. Subscribers can access maps to explore an area and they can obtain directions to a restaurant, store or other place of interest. The TCS Places application works with existing location infrastructure, whether tower-triangulation or Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite. TCS Places was recently named a semi-finalist in the 2006 NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge and is available now.
The second location-based service TCS is unveiling at CTIA is TCS Handset Locator. One of the leading causes of churn -- or customer turnover -- is de-activation of handsets due to lost and stolen phones. With the introduction of TCS Handset Locator, the first service of its kind in the industry, carriers can now offer their subscribers a "find my cell phone" service to locate missing handsets. If a handset is lost, stolen or misplaced, subscribers can go online and access a Web portal to find the last location of the missing phone and the determine the current battery level. When the phone reaches a critically low battery level, the service will automatically determine the handset's location so that a "last known location" can be accessed by the user. The service is billed monthly or on a per-use basis. TCS Handset Locator will be available later this year.
"With the introduction of these two new location-based services, TCS continues to demonstrate our innovation and market leadership in developing and delivering services that subscribers demand while opening up new lines of revenue for carriers," said Drew Morin, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for TCS. "What if you could recover your lost cell phone? How many times have you been in an unfamiliar area and you needed to find a gas station or a place to eat? These services address the all-too-familiar situations."
TCS will demonstrate TCS Handset Locator and TCS Places in TCS' booth, number 1635, at Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) Wireless 2006, the wireless industry's largest international tradeshow, being held April 5-7 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada.
ABOUT TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, INC.
TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. (TCS) (NASDAQ: TSYS) is a leading provider of mission-critical wireless communications to carriers, enterprise and government customers. TCS-designed systems include location-relevant solutions for consumer brands. TCS' wireless data offerings include location-based Enhanced 9-1-1 services, and messaging and location service infrastructure for wireless operators; real-time market data and alerts to financial institutions; mobile asset management and mobile office solutions for enterprises; and encrypted satellite communications to government customers. For more information, visit TCS in booth 1635 at CTIA Wireless 2006 in Las Vegas or the company's Web site at telecomsys.com.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements are based upon TCS' current expectations and assumptions that are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that would cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated.
The actual results realized by the Company could differ materially from the statements made herein, depending in particular upon the risks and uncertainties described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These include without limitation risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's financial results and the ability of the Company to (i) reach and sustain profitability when anticipated, (ii) continue to rely on its customers and other third parties to provide additional products and services that create a demand for its products and services, (iii) conduct its business in foreign countries, (iv) adapt and integrate new technologies into its products, (v) expand its business offerings in the new wireless data industry, (vi) develop software and provide services without any errors or defects, (vii) protect its intellectual property rights, and (viii) implement its sales and marketing strategy.
Existing and prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise the information in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or circumstances, or otherwise.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Media Contacts:
TeleCommunication Systems, Inc.
Rita Thompson
410-295-1865
Email Contact
Welz & Weisel Communications
Jane Bryant
703-323-6006
Email Contact
location based services
TCS Places" Identifies Local Services and Their Precise Locations; "TCS Handset Locator" Finds Missing Handsets Instantly via the Web
LAS VEGAS, NV -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 04/05/2006 -- CTIA Booth 1635 -- TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. (TCS) (NASDAQ: TSYS), a leading provider of mission-critical wireless communications, today announced the availability of TCS Places and TCS Handset Locator, two new services that wireless carriers and Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) can offer to their subscribers and which leverage the carrier's location infrastructure.
TCS Places is an innovative service that provides the means for subscribers to have instant access to their content and services while "on-the-go." Newspapers, travel services, local content providers and media companies can now offer location-relevant content, based on a subscriber's precise location. Subscribers can access maps to explore an area and they can obtain directions to a restaurant, store or other place of interest. The TCS Places application works with existing location infrastructure, whether tower-triangulation or Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite. TCS Places was recently named a semi-finalist in the 2006 NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge and is available now.
The second location-based service TCS is unveiling at CTIA is TCS Handset Locator. One of the leading causes of churn -- or customer turnover -- is de-activation of handsets due to lost and stolen phones. With the introduction of TCS Handset Locator, the first service of its kind in the industry, carriers can now offer their subscribers a "find my cell phone" service to locate missing handsets. If a handset is lost, stolen or misplaced, subscribers can go online and access a Web portal to find the last location of the missing phone and the determine the current battery level. When the phone reaches a critically low battery level, the service will automatically determine the handset's location so that a "last known location" can be accessed by the user. The service is billed monthly or on a per-use basis. TCS Handset Locator will be available later this year.
"With the introduction of these two new location-based services, TCS continues to demonstrate our innovation and market leadership in developing and delivering services that subscribers demand while opening up new lines of revenue for carriers," said Drew Morin, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for TCS. "What if you could recover your lost cell phone? How many times have you been in an unfamiliar area and you needed to find a gas station or a place to eat? These services address the all-too-familiar situations."
TCS will demonstrate TCS Handset Locator and TCS Places in TCS' booth, number 1635, at Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) Wireless 2006, the wireless industry's largest international tradeshow, being held April 5-7 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada.
ABOUT TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, INC.
TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. (TCS) (NASDAQ: TSYS) is a leading provider of mission-critical wireless communications to carriers, enterprise and government customers. TCS-designed systems include location-relevant solutions for consumer brands. TCS' wireless data offerings include location-based Enhanced 9-1-1 services, and messaging and location service infrastructure for wireless operators; real-time market data and alerts to financial institutions; mobile asset management and mobile office solutions for enterprises; and encrypted satellite communications to government customers. For more information, visit TCS in booth 1635 at CTIA Wireless 2006 in Las Vegas or the company's Web site at telecomsys.com.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements are based upon TCS' current expectations and assumptions that are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that would cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated.
The actual results realized by the Company could differ materially from the statements made herein, depending in particular upon the risks and uncertainties described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These include without limitation risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's financial results and the ability of the Company to (i) reach and sustain profitability when anticipated, (ii) continue to rely on its customers and other third parties to provide additional products and services that create a demand for its products and services, (iii) conduct its business in foreign countries, (iv) adapt and integrate new technologies into its products, (v) expand its business offerings in the new wireless data industry, (vi) develop software and provide services without any errors or defects, (vii) protect its intellectual property rights, and (viii) implement its sales and marketing strategy.
Existing and prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise the information in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or circumstances, or otherwise.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Media Contacts:
TeleCommunication Systems, Inc.
Rita Thompson
410-295-1865
Email Contact
Welz & Weisel Communications
Jane Bryant
703-323-6006
Email Contact
Mickey Goes Mobile
location based services
Disney releases details of its cell phone service for this June.
April 5, 2006
Hoping to ease parental worries over cell phone usage by children, the Walt Disney company will launch a Disney Mobile cell phone service in June that includes a parent monitoring system, the company said Wednesday.
The Mickey mobile service will have a “Family Monitor” and “Call Control” services that allow parents to monitor kids with a GPS device and set limits on children’s text messaging, voice calls, and downloads, Disney spokesperson Tim Schramm said.
The service will be available this summer over the Sprint network on two phones, made by South Korean companies Pantech and LG. LG showed off a bright-red clam-shell phone for the service in Las Vegas at CTIA, the largest wireless convention.
While the service was announced last year, details of the branded service have been scarce until now (see Disney Plans Cellular Service).
The Disney phones will allow parents to set limits on a child’s usage, and when the limit is reached parents will receive a text message alert, said Mr. Schramm.
‘This is going to be big.’
-Kenneth Hyers,
ABI Research
- ADVERTISEMENT -
Parents can then choose to extend or deny service, though the phones will allow emergency calls even if service is denied, said Mr. Schramm.
The service could strike a chord with parents concerned about children racking up spending charges for digital content and voice calls.
Disney Mobile phones will also use an embedded GPS chip to enable a tracking-style service.
Any parent would pay for the magic ability to find out where their kid is, said ABI Research’s Kenneth Hyers in a recent interview. Verizon Wireless is expected to launch a similar service this summer (see Verizon to Help Track Kids).
So-called location-based services are a topic of much discussion at the wireless convention, with wireless operators like Verizon finally launching services this year (see Verizon Navigates LBS Market).
For years location-based services have caused concern among the mobile phone companies, but the entrance of a family-friendly big brand like Disney can go a long way to calm their anxiety.
‘Verizon doesn’t adopt a technology lightly. This is going to be big,” said Mr. Hyers.
Branded Mobile
Disney’s mobile service is not the company’s first try as a mobile virtual network operator, called MVNO in the wireless industry. The company launched ESPN Mobile recently for sports-fan dads.
MVNOs are an increasingly popular way that brands can leverage the power of mobile, and target a niche demographic.
On Tuesday the “Flying J” highway hospitality provider announced it would launch an MVNO service targeted at the trucker set.
However, MVNOs are also the latest fad, and analysts predict many will fail.
Sprint has been the most aggressive carrier to make deals with wireless brands, a strategy which the carrier will use to compete from third place.
Sprint COO Len Lauer said in an interview last month that the company made a strategic move to embrace third parties like MVNOs, while competitors like Verizon and Cingular still see MVNOs as part-time competitors.
location based services
Disney releases details of its cell phone service for this June.
April 5, 2006
Hoping to ease parental worries over cell phone usage by children, the Walt Disney company will launch a Disney Mobile cell phone service in June that includes a parent monitoring system, the company said Wednesday.
The Mickey mobile service will have a “Family Monitor” and “Call Control” services that allow parents to monitor kids with a GPS device and set limits on children’s text messaging, voice calls, and downloads, Disney spokesperson Tim Schramm said.
The service will be available this summer over the Sprint network on two phones, made by South Korean companies Pantech and LG. LG showed off a bright-red clam-shell phone for the service in Las Vegas at CTIA, the largest wireless convention.
While the service was announced last year, details of the branded service have been scarce until now (see Disney Plans Cellular Service).
The Disney phones will allow parents to set limits on a child’s usage, and when the limit is reached parents will receive a text message alert, said Mr. Schramm.
‘This is going to be big.’
-Kenneth Hyers,
ABI Research
- ADVERTISEMENT -
Parents can then choose to extend or deny service, though the phones will allow emergency calls even if service is denied, said Mr. Schramm.
The service could strike a chord with parents concerned about children racking up spending charges for digital content and voice calls.
Disney Mobile phones will also use an embedded GPS chip to enable a tracking-style service.
Any parent would pay for the magic ability to find out where their kid is, said ABI Research’s Kenneth Hyers in a recent interview. Verizon Wireless is expected to launch a similar service this summer (see Verizon to Help Track Kids).
So-called location-based services are a topic of much discussion at the wireless convention, with wireless operators like Verizon finally launching services this year (see Verizon Navigates LBS Market).
For years location-based services have caused concern among the mobile phone companies, but the entrance of a family-friendly big brand like Disney can go a long way to calm their anxiety.
‘Verizon doesn’t adopt a technology lightly. This is going to be big,” said Mr. Hyers.
Branded Mobile
Disney’s mobile service is not the company’s first try as a mobile virtual network operator, called MVNO in the wireless industry. The company launched ESPN Mobile recently for sports-fan dads.
MVNOs are an increasingly popular way that brands can leverage the power of mobile, and target a niche demographic.
On Tuesday the “Flying J” highway hospitality provider announced it would launch an MVNO service targeted at the trucker set.
However, MVNOs are also the latest fad, and analysts predict many will fail.
Sprint has been the most aggressive carrier to make deals with wireless brands, a strategy which the carrier will use to compete from third place.
Sprint COO Len Lauer said in an interview last month that the company made a strategic move to embrace third parties like MVNOs, while competitors like Verizon and Cingular still see MVNOs as part-time competitors.
Alinta could � if, if and if - Business - Business - smh.com.au
A STRANGE thing happened in the sharemarket yesterday. Just after lunch it was abuzz with rumours AGL had scheduled meetings with large investors in its takeover target, Alinta, to coincide with an announcement. The assumption was AGL was about to lift the offer price. Not surprisingly, the Alinta share price soared.
In response, the AGL machine moved into action, assuring anyone that might have heard this speculation that there were no unscheduled meetings with institutions on Friday and that no announcement was pending.
Maybe everyone was getting a bit excited because Alinta's boss, Bob Browning, was seen wandering through the lobby of Sydney's Westin Hotel yesterday rather than picking up his dinner suit from the cleaners before joining the throng of West Australian dignitaries for the 10-year celebration of John Howard's prime ministership at Perth's Hyatt.
Or perhaps there are too many trigger-happy traders second-guessing how this messy corporate scenario will play out.
At this stage, Alinta has a hostile bid on the table for AGL and AGL has one on the table for Alinta. Both are scrip bids that imply consistent values. Both have similar strategies on how to deal with the combined assets on completion of a deal.
The main thing on which they disagree is who will run the show.
Alinta has a couple of significant advantages in the battle. Firstly, it already has a near 20 per cent interest in AGL, so getting to a position of control is not quite as tough. It also has first-mover advantage, which means it's ahead in the race of time.
In AGL's favour there is size. If AGL wants to outbid Alinta, it can. On the other side of the coin, Alinta can only capitalise on its timing advantage if various regulators allow it. The first is the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Not much has been said about the part the ACCC will play because there is a general view that neither company's proposal will be particularly problematic.
But Alinta cannot seize on its time advantage until the ACCC has made a ruling, and it's only early days yet.
Alinta also has an issue on when it is able to dispatch its offer documents and start the clock ticking on the six-week minimum offer period. This uncertainty arises because Alinta had to amend the bidder's statement, so it could lose a couple of weeks.
Finally, the Alinta strategy depends on a ruling from the Takeovers Panel, and this is a particularly important decision. AGL wants the panel to rule that Alinta cannot drop its 50.1 per cent minimum acceptance condition.
This is because Alinta clearly plans to drop this condition so it can increase its shareholding in AGL to get control, throw out the AGL board and at some later stage move to mop up the minorities. In this instance control could be as little as 30 per cent and it already has 20 per cent.
If it can do all this before AGL gets a chance to put its offer before shareholders then Alinta could win the race.
But the timing is finely pitched.
Realistically, small shareholders are not about to sell their AGL shares to Alinta. Institutional shareholders will be reluctant too because the offer is for scrip and the big boys don't move until the death knell of any takeover offer.
If the Takeovers Panel allows Alinta to remove the conditions, it can move into the market and buy shares for cash - the institutions will be happier with this.
But the window will be limited. Once AGL's offer is capable of acceptance it can join the game by declaring its offer free of conditions and wading in itself to pick up Alinta stock for cash.
In this scenario, no one wins. And both parties look like they have engaged in a stupid exercise of muscle, using shareholders' money.
So don't be surprised if AGL does try and sweeten its offer. It can't get too generous because an increased scrip offer will dilute its shareholders. Raising its offer also flies in the face of AGL's argument that it proposes a merger and therefore should not offer any premium over fair value.
The outcome should be a negotiated settlement between the two parties that includes them demerging their retail assets from their infrastructure assets.
While Bob Browning at Alinta sees he has a chance to win control because of his timing advantage, peace is unlikely to break out.
So let's just see what the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the ACCC and the Takeovers Panel have to say.
A STRANGE thing happened in the sharemarket yesterday. Just after lunch it was abuzz with rumours AGL had scheduled meetings with large investors in its takeover target, Alinta, to coincide with an announcement. The assumption was AGL was about to lift the offer price. Not surprisingly, the Alinta share price soared.
In response, the AGL machine moved into action, assuring anyone that might have heard this speculation that there were no unscheduled meetings with institutions on Friday and that no announcement was pending.
Maybe everyone was getting a bit excited because Alinta's boss, Bob Browning, was seen wandering through the lobby of Sydney's Westin Hotel yesterday rather than picking up his dinner suit from the cleaners before joining the throng of West Australian dignitaries for the 10-year celebration of John Howard's prime ministership at Perth's Hyatt.
Or perhaps there are too many trigger-happy traders second-guessing how this messy corporate scenario will play out.
At this stage, Alinta has a hostile bid on the table for AGL and AGL has one on the table for Alinta. Both are scrip bids that imply consistent values. Both have similar strategies on how to deal with the combined assets on completion of a deal.
The main thing on which they disagree is who will run the show.
Alinta has a couple of significant advantages in the battle. Firstly, it already has a near 20 per cent interest in AGL, so getting to a position of control is not quite as tough. It also has first-mover advantage, which means it's ahead in the race of time.
In AGL's favour there is size. If AGL wants to outbid Alinta, it can. On the other side of the coin, Alinta can only capitalise on its timing advantage if various regulators allow it. The first is the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Not much has been said about the part the ACCC will play because there is a general view that neither company's proposal will be particularly problematic.
But Alinta cannot seize on its time advantage until the ACCC has made a ruling, and it's only early days yet.
Alinta also has an issue on when it is able to dispatch its offer documents and start the clock ticking on the six-week minimum offer period. This uncertainty arises because Alinta had to amend the bidder's statement, so it could lose a couple of weeks.
Finally, the Alinta strategy depends on a ruling from the Takeovers Panel, and this is a particularly important decision. AGL wants the panel to rule that Alinta cannot drop its 50.1 per cent minimum acceptance condition.
This is because Alinta clearly plans to drop this condition so it can increase its shareholding in AGL to get control, throw out the AGL board and at some later stage move to mop up the minorities. In this instance control could be as little as 30 per cent and it already has 20 per cent.
If it can do all this before AGL gets a chance to put its offer before shareholders then Alinta could win the race.
But the timing is finely pitched.
Realistically, small shareholders are not about to sell their AGL shares to Alinta. Institutional shareholders will be reluctant too because the offer is for scrip and the big boys don't move until the death knell of any takeover offer.
If the Takeovers Panel allows Alinta to remove the conditions, it can move into the market and buy shares for cash - the institutions will be happier with this.
But the window will be limited. Once AGL's offer is capable of acceptance it can join the game by declaring its offer free of conditions and wading in itself to pick up Alinta stock for cash.
In this scenario, no one wins. And both parties look like they have engaged in a stupid exercise of muscle, using shareholders' money.
So don't be surprised if AGL does try and sweeten its offer. It can't get too generous because an increased scrip offer will dilute its shareholders. Raising its offer also flies in the face of AGL's argument that it proposes a merger and therefore should not offer any premium over fair value.
The outcome should be a negotiated settlement between the two parties that includes them demerging their retail assets from their infrastructure assets.
While Bob Browning at Alinta sees he has a chance to win control because of his timing advantage, peace is unlikely to break out.
So let's just see what the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the ACCC and the Takeovers Panel have to say.
while growth is slowing at most top Internet sites, it is skyrocketing at sites focused on social networking, blogging and local information
location based services
In a recent survey of top Web domains, Yahoo had the highest growth among unique visitors followed by Google. Which site came in third?
MSN Correct Answer
AOL
EBay
MySpace Your Answer
MSN ranked third in a survey conducted by ComScore Media Metrix that measured visitor growth among 50 of the top Web sites over the past year. The study found that while growth is slowing at most top Internet sites, it is skyrocketing at sites focused on social networking, blogging and local information.
• New Trends in Online Traffic | Top Web Domains
• Test Your Knowledge -- More Questions
• Submit Your Trivia Questions
--------------------------------------------------------
location based services
In a recent survey of top Web domains, Yahoo had the highest growth among unique visitors followed by Google. Which site came in third?
MSN Correct Answer
AOL
EBay
MySpace Your Answer
MSN ranked third in a survey conducted by ComScore Media Metrix that measured visitor growth among 50 of the top Web sites over the past year. The study found that while growth is slowing at most top Internet sites, it is skyrocketing at sites focused on social networking, blogging and local information.
• New Trends in Online Traffic | Top Web Domains
• Test Your Knowledge -- More Questions
• Submit Your Trivia Questions
--------------------------------------------------------
Wayfinder GPS for the Mobile Phone | GPS Lodge.com
Wayfinder is introducing Navigator 6, an exclusive product catapulting cell phone GPS navigation to a whole new level of ease, coverage and convenience. Another GPS software package for your mobile phone. This offers some interesting features like enhanced functionality including a zoom in/zoom out world map, a currency converter and a weather service. The world mapping capability provides easy to use and follow directions to over three million POIs (Points of Interest). The global reach of Wayfinder Navigator 6 is genuinely the world in your handheld!
"This makes Wayfinder Navigator the uncontested, most complete navigation service for the cell phone on the market today," says Magnus Nilsson, CEO Wayfinder Systems. "Navigator 6 is far and away the easiest means of finding your way anywhere in the world."
Fully user-friendly, Navigator 6 features a distinct and easy-to-read Service Window. This allows the traveller/user crystal clear visibility to important features like the international currency converter and local and worldwide weather. Wayfinder's suite of Navigator products, including the Navigator 6 are compatible across the spectrum of mass market mobile devices, including: BlackBerry, HP, Motorola, Nokia, QTek, Sony Ericsson, T-Mobile, and TSM.
"Our product line is fast becoming the ultimate travel companion," according to CEO Nilsson. "We are making this a reality by identifying and solving the traveller's problems. Whether it's finding the best way to your destination or calculating an item's price in a foreign country, Wayfinder products like the Navigator 6 are the most effective and efficient way to do it."
Read More in: Mobile Phone GPS
Related Articles:
Verizon's VZ Navigator - directions from your GPS Mobile Phone - Dec 07, 2005
Wayfinder is introducing Navigator 6, an exclusive product catapulting cell phone GPS navigation to a whole new level of ease, coverage and convenience. Another GPS software package for your mobile phone. This offers some interesting features like enhanced functionality including a zoom in/zoom out world map, a currency converter and a weather service. The world mapping capability provides easy to use and follow directions to over three million POIs (Points of Interest). The global reach of Wayfinder Navigator 6 is genuinely the world in your handheld!
"This makes Wayfinder Navigator the uncontested, most complete navigation service for the cell phone on the market today," says Magnus Nilsson, CEO Wayfinder Systems. "Navigator 6 is far and away the easiest means of finding your way anywhere in the world."
Fully user-friendly, Navigator 6 features a distinct and easy-to-read Service Window. This allows the traveller/user crystal clear visibility to important features like the international currency converter and local and worldwide weather. Wayfinder's suite of Navigator products, including the Navigator 6 are compatible across the spectrum of mass market mobile devices, including: BlackBerry, HP, Motorola, Nokia, QTek, Sony Ericsson, T-Mobile, and TSM.
"Our product line is fast becoming the ultimate travel companion," according to CEO Nilsson. "We are making this a reality by identifying and solving the traveller's problems. Whether it's finding the best way to your destination or calculating an item's price in a foreign country, Wayfinder products like the Navigator 6 are the most effective and efficient way to do it."
Read More in: Mobile Phone GPS
Related Articles:
Verizon's VZ Navigator - directions from your GPS Mobile Phone - Dec 07, 2005
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Trimble’s New Smart GPS Timing Antenna Takes Center Stage for Network Synchronization
location based services
SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 3, 2006 – Trimble (NASDAQ:TRMB) introduced today the latest in a long line of Global Positioning System (GPS) timing receivers—the Acutime™ Gold GPS smart antenna. Slightly larger than a baseball and housed in a rugged, environmentally sealed enclosure, the Acutime Gold provides a pulse-per-second (PPS) output synchronized to UTC within 15 nanoseconds (one sigma). It is a small, accurate and extremely cost-effective solution for adding GPS timing and synchronization into any application where ease of installation and long-term reliability is critical.
The Acutime Gold GPS smart antenna will be showcased at CTIA's Wireless 2006 Conference April 5-7 in Las Vegas.
Using Trimble’s latest GPS software technology, the Acutime Gold GPS smart timing antenna builds upon field-proven expertise; Trimble has been producing smart antenna receivers since 1991. The new Acutime Gold GPS smart antenna is directly compatible with applications build around previous generation Acutime 2000 receivers. The antenna is an ideal solution for precise timing and network synchronization, including broadband wireless applications. It provides an independent timing source, within the firewall, for any application such as network fault detection systems and synchronization of wireless networks. It enables easy GPS integration for applications including:
Synchronization and timing of paging, cellular and radio networks
Network fault detection systems
Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) applications
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems
"The Acutime Gold GPS smart antenna builds on Trimble’s 15 years of experience with the Acutime and Palisade GPS smart antenna families," said Dennis Workman, Trimble's vice president and general manager of Component Technologies. "We’ve implemented the next step in our product line strategy by combining TrimCore software technology and the latest generation of commercial DSP silicon with our extensive GPS experience in timing and positioning. This step brings the price and performance value needed in today’s expanding wireless applications.”
Once power is applied, the Acutime Gold automatically tracks satellites and surveys its position to within meters. It then switches to overdetermined time mode and generates a PPS (outputting a time tag for each pulse. The Acutime Gold GPS smart antenna’s T-RAIM (Time-Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitor) algorithm ensures PPS integrity.
Designed for long-term reliability, the Acutime Gold GPS smart timing antenna is a pole-mounted GPS receiver and antenna. It is corrosion-resistant and waterproof, and has a rounded top that facilitates run-off from the elements. The RS-422 interface is ideal for long cable runs required by buildings or towers. Standard cables are available in lengths up to 400 feet. Custom lengths up to 1800 feet are available.
The Acutime Gold can operate in extreme temperatures (-40 to +85 degrees Celsius) and hostile RF-jamming environments typically encountered at wireless network transmitter sites. It requires less than 70mA at 12 volts and outputs Trimble's standard interface protocol (TSIP) or industry-standard NMEA.
The Acutime Gold Starter Kit makes it easy to evaluate the performance of the Acutime Gold GPS smart antenna. It includes the Acutime Gold GPS smart antenna (RS-422), a 100 foot interface cable, user guide, RS-422 to USB converter, and a Windows software tool for monitoring and communication. In addition, the Acutime Gold GPS smart timing antenna has been designed to meet restrictions on the use of hazardous substances under the RoHS European Directive.
The Acutime Gold GPS smart timing antenna is expected to be available in production quantities in the second quarter of 2006 through Trimble’s Component Technologies Division.
About Trimble GPS Timing
With the expansion of data and communications networks, Trimble GPS provides the pulse for some of the world’s largest networking companies. Trimble offers precise time and frequency products for CDMA, TDMA, GSM, Broadband Wireless, TCP/IP and 3G applications. More than 25 years of experience allow Trimble to take GPS receivers and disciplined clocks to higher levels of integration and performance, providing a cost benefit to customers.
About Trimble
Trimble is a leading innovator of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. In addition to providing advanced GPS components, Trimble augments GPS with other positioning technologies as well as wireless communications and software to create complete customer solutions. Trimble's worldwide presence and unique capabilities position the Company for growth in emerging applications including surveying, agriculture, machine guidance, asset and fleet management, wireless platforms, and telecommunications infrastructure. Founded in 1978 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., Trimble has more than 2,000 employees in more than 20 countries worldwide.
For more information, visit: www.trimble.com.
Search WirelessDevNet for Related Items
Search Google for Related Stories
location based services
SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 3, 2006 – Trimble (NASDAQ:TRMB) introduced today the latest in a long line of Global Positioning System (GPS) timing receivers—the Acutime™ Gold GPS smart antenna. Slightly larger than a baseball and housed in a rugged, environmentally sealed enclosure, the Acutime Gold provides a pulse-per-second (PPS) output synchronized to UTC within 15 nanoseconds (one sigma). It is a small, accurate and extremely cost-effective solution for adding GPS timing and synchronization into any application where ease of installation and long-term reliability is critical.
The Acutime Gold GPS smart antenna will be showcased at CTIA's Wireless 2006 Conference April 5-7 in Las Vegas.
Using Trimble’s latest GPS software technology, the Acutime Gold GPS smart timing antenna builds upon field-proven expertise; Trimble has been producing smart antenna receivers since 1991. The new Acutime Gold GPS smart antenna is directly compatible with applications build around previous generation Acutime 2000 receivers. The antenna is an ideal solution for precise timing and network synchronization, including broadband wireless applications. It provides an independent timing source, within the firewall, for any application such as network fault detection systems and synchronization of wireless networks. It enables easy GPS integration for applications including:
Synchronization and timing of paging, cellular and radio networks
Network fault detection systems
Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) applications
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems
"The Acutime Gold GPS smart antenna builds on Trimble’s 15 years of experience with the Acutime and Palisade GPS smart antenna families," said Dennis Workman, Trimble's vice president and general manager of Component Technologies. "We’ve implemented the next step in our product line strategy by combining TrimCore software technology and the latest generation of commercial DSP silicon with our extensive GPS experience in timing and positioning. This step brings the price and performance value needed in today’s expanding wireless applications.”
Once power is applied, the Acutime Gold automatically tracks satellites and surveys its position to within meters. It then switches to overdetermined time mode and generates a PPS (outputting a time tag for each pulse. The Acutime Gold GPS smart antenna’s T-RAIM (Time-Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitor) algorithm ensures PPS integrity.
Designed for long-term reliability, the Acutime Gold GPS smart timing antenna is a pole-mounted GPS receiver and antenna. It is corrosion-resistant and waterproof, and has a rounded top that facilitates run-off from the elements. The RS-422 interface is ideal for long cable runs required by buildings or towers. Standard cables are available in lengths up to 400 feet. Custom lengths up to 1800 feet are available.
The Acutime Gold can operate in extreme temperatures (-40 to +85 degrees Celsius) and hostile RF-jamming environments typically encountered at wireless network transmitter sites. It requires less than 70mA at 12 volts and outputs Trimble's standard interface protocol (TSIP) or industry-standard NMEA.
The Acutime Gold Starter Kit makes it easy to evaluate the performance of the Acutime Gold GPS smart antenna. It includes the Acutime Gold GPS smart antenna (RS-422), a 100 foot interface cable, user guide, RS-422 to USB converter, and a Windows software tool for monitoring and communication. In addition, the Acutime Gold GPS smart timing antenna has been designed to meet restrictions on the use of hazardous substances under the RoHS European Directive.
The Acutime Gold GPS smart timing antenna is expected to be available in production quantities in the second quarter of 2006 through Trimble’s Component Technologies Division.
About Trimble GPS Timing
With the expansion of data and communications networks, Trimble GPS provides the pulse for some of the world’s largest networking companies. Trimble offers precise time and frequency products for CDMA, TDMA, GSM, Broadband Wireless, TCP/IP and 3G applications. More than 25 years of experience allow Trimble to take GPS receivers and disciplined clocks to higher levels of integration and performance, providing a cost benefit to customers.
About Trimble
Trimble is a leading innovator of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. In addition to providing advanced GPS components, Trimble augments GPS with other positioning technologies as well as wireless communications and software to create complete customer solutions. Trimble's worldwide presence and unique capabilities position the Company for growth in emerging applications including surveying, agriculture, machine guidance, asset and fleet management, wireless platforms, and telecommunications infrastructure. Founded in 1978 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., Trimble has more than 2,000 employees in more than 20 countries worldwide.
For more information, visit: www.trimble.com.
Search WirelessDevNet for Related Items
Search Google for Related Stories
LOC-AID technologies provides LOC-AID BSA to Tier I Carriers in North America and CALA
BOCA RATON, FL – April 3, 2006 - LOC-AID Technologies Inc., a leader in location-based services (LBS) and innovator of end-to-end location aggregation, announced today that its LOC-AID BSA product is in operational service with several national carriers in North and South America. These wireless carriers are leveraging LOC-AID’s BSA client and server, which combine real-time engineering tools for the validation, calibration and maintenance of A-GPS PDE servers. The LOC-AID BSA handset application gives wireless carriers a reliable method for A-GPS field data acquisition as well as providing hosted web-based monitoring capabilities.
“The wireless location-based services market is here to stay,” said Naomi Morita, director of business development at LOC-AID Technologies. “Network operators demand operational tools to efficiently deploy and maintain this important technology. Our tools combine the scope to optimize A-GPS BSA(s) for nationwide networks with ease-of-use to be effective when distributed amongst a carrier’s field service team. LOC-AID BSA A-GPS optimization tools enable carriers to quickly and efficiently monitor, test and optimize the quality of services of their location solution.”
About LOC-AID Technologies
LOC-AID, based in Boca Raton FL, has developed a suite of award-winning location-based services (LBS) solutions, which include Friend Finder, Social Networking, Gaming and Workforce Management, as well as creating the first fully integrated LBS aggregation Gateway. LOC-AID's current LBS offerings are available for download through the Telefonica (Movistar), Iusacell and Unefon networks, and will launch in the U.S. in 2006. For more information, visit www.loc-aid.net.
Search WirelessDevNet for Related Items
BOCA RATON, FL – April 3, 2006 - LOC-AID Technologies Inc., a leader in location-based services (LBS) and innovator of end-to-end location aggregation, announced today that its LOC-AID BSA product is in operational service with several national carriers in North and South America. These wireless carriers are leveraging LOC-AID’s BSA client and server, which combine real-time engineering tools for the validation, calibration and maintenance of A-GPS PDE servers. The LOC-AID BSA handset application gives wireless carriers a reliable method for A-GPS field data acquisition as well as providing hosted web-based monitoring capabilities.
“The wireless location-based services market is here to stay,” said Naomi Morita, director of business development at LOC-AID Technologies. “Network operators demand operational tools to efficiently deploy and maintain this important technology. Our tools combine the scope to optimize A-GPS BSA(s) for nationwide networks with ease-of-use to be effective when distributed amongst a carrier’s field service team. LOC-AID BSA A-GPS optimization tools enable carriers to quickly and efficiently monitor, test and optimize the quality of services of their location solution.”
About LOC-AID Technologies
LOC-AID, based in Boca Raton FL, has developed a suite of award-winning location-based services (LBS) solutions, which include Friend Finder, Social Networking, Gaming and Workforce Management, as well as creating the first fully integrated LBS aggregation Gateway. LOC-AID's current LBS offerings are available for download through the Telefonica (Movistar), Iusacell and Unefon networks, and will launch in the U.S. in 2006. For more information, visit www.loc-aid.net.
Search WirelessDevNet for Related Items
How To Add Your Local Business Ad In Google AdWords
location based services
I just posted about Google's New Local Business Ads, but this entry is going to take you step by step on how I added my icon and logo to my company's, RustyBrick, listing.
I logged into my Google AdWords Account, which was also linked to the Google account I used to update my local business listing. I was presented with a link to "Create New Local Business Ad", which looked like;
I clicked on that link and moved on to a page that asked to help identify my company. The page was a form prefilled with my company's information, so I clicked continue below the form. Here is a screen capture;
Google found one listed and asked me to confirm this listing before preceding, so I did, here is that screen;
The next screen asked me to create my ad, and it showed me a preview of the ad, as I create it, much like how normal ads work in AdWords. It looked like;
Part of this screen, they asked me to pick a map icon, here is the dhtml pop up of icon choices;
I then uploaded my logo and clicked save, which took me back to the ad preview page for both my listings (i.e. normal ad and geoad);
So I clicked on edit ad, under the geo ad, and was presented with the full view on the AdWords management screen;
Here is a view of my listing on Google Local Maps;
When I click on that windmill logo, it brings up my image ad portion;
No, I did not click on my ad, and I hope you guys don't either. That is the reason I did not link directly to the Google Local result. :)
Posted by Barry Schwartz on Mar. 31, 2006 Permalink
See related stories in these categories! (available to SEW members) Google: AdWords, Google: Local, Google: Maps
Next Post: Search Forums Roundup: Mar. 31, 2006 Previous Post: Google's New Local Business Ads Return To: SEW Blog Home Page
Search Engine Watchhttp://searchenginewatch.comOur Staff
location based services
I just posted about Google's New Local Business Ads, but this entry is going to take you step by step on how I added my icon and logo to my company's, RustyBrick, listing.
I logged into my Google AdWords Account, which was also linked to the Google account I used to update my local business listing. I was presented with a link to "Create New Local Business Ad", which looked like;
I clicked on that link and moved on to a page that asked to help identify my company. The page was a form prefilled with my company's information, so I clicked continue below the form. Here is a screen capture;
Google found one listed and asked me to confirm this listing before preceding, so I did, here is that screen;
The next screen asked me to create my ad, and it showed me a preview of the ad, as I create it, much like how normal ads work in AdWords. It looked like;
Part of this screen, they asked me to pick a map icon, here is the dhtml pop up of icon choices;
I then uploaded my logo and clicked save, which took me back to the ad preview page for both my listings (i.e. normal ad and geoad);
So I clicked on edit ad, under the geo ad, and was presented with the full view on the AdWords management screen;
Here is a view of my listing on Google Local Maps;
When I click on that windmill logo, it brings up my image ad portion;
No, I did not click on my ad, and I hope you guys don't either. That is the reason I did not link directly to the Google Local result. :)
Posted by Barry Schwartz on Mar. 31, 2006 Permalink
See related stories in these categories! (available to SEW members) Google: AdWords, Google: Local, Google: Maps
Next Post: Search Forums Roundup: Mar. 31, 2006 Previous Post: Google's New Local Business Ads Return To: SEW Blog Home Page
Search Engine Watchhttp://searchenginewatch.comOur Staff
Google Maps Mania: Advertising meets Google Maps
location based services
Google's introduction of advertising to Google Local has been a buzz within the media and blogosphere recently on a few different levels..First, Google Local now officially offers advertising opportunities for companies that want to sponsor keyword searches. When searches are run through Google Local a 'paid-pin' (blue) will be nestled among other Local map pins (red) that match the search. The paid ads come complete with graphical logo and a small amount of information (similar to a business card listing).This same paid advertising may also soon be coming to the Google Maps API (mashup) world too. The Google Maps API Terms of Use had previously stated that Google reserved the right to introduce advertising. Now, as of V2 released this week, the terms have been relaxed. Google now states that if they still decide to introduce advertising, they must communicate this 90 days prior to doing so on the Google Maps API Blog. They then refer to a process you can follow to opt-out, or discontinue use altogether.I think all indicators point to ads being fused together with mashups and API sites very soon. When this happens I believe the advertising content will be relevant to the mashup or tool and won't compromise the quality and value of the content on the map. Google has perfected ad relevance in the Search, and I think they'll extend this same algorithm to Maps as well.Here are more news links and blog discussion I have pulled together to help you understand analysis from various angles:Google Maps API to get opt-out advertising? - ZDNet Blog, Apr.3/06: This ZDNet blog post outlines the changes in the exact wording changes in the API terms that refer to advertising.Google Takes Its Maps Into Local Ad Market - DMNews, Apr.3/06: This direct marketing newspaper talks about the benefits to the local search ad industry.How To Add Your Local Business Ad In Google AdWords - SearchEngineWatch.com, Mar.31/06: This is a great step by step how-to for getting your logo and business to display in Google Local. (if you're using Firefox, you may need to scroll down a bit to view this post)Google Mellows Ad Terms For Maps - WebProNews, Apr.03/06Google Local Ads are Official - All Points Blog, Mar.31/06Google Local: Your Image and Text On Google Maps; My Questions - SearchEngineLowDown, Mar.31,06Google Maps Out Its Ad Future - PCMagazine, Mar.31/06Google local search shows image ads on maps - CNet News.com, Mar.30/06
location based services
Google's introduction of advertising to Google Local has been a buzz within the media and blogosphere recently on a few different levels..First, Google Local now officially offers advertising opportunities for companies that want to sponsor keyword searches. When searches are run through Google Local a 'paid-pin' (blue) will be nestled among other Local map pins (red) that match the search. The paid ads come complete with graphical logo and a small amount of information (similar to a business card listing).This same paid advertising may also soon be coming to the Google Maps API (mashup) world too. The Google Maps API Terms of Use had previously stated that Google reserved the right to introduce advertising. Now, as of V2 released this week, the terms have been relaxed. Google now states that if they still decide to introduce advertising, they must communicate this 90 days prior to doing so on the Google Maps API Blog. They then refer to a process you can follow to opt-out, or discontinue use altogether.I think all indicators point to ads being fused together with mashups and API sites very soon. When this happens I believe the advertising content will be relevant to the mashup or tool and won't compromise the quality and value of the content on the map. Google has perfected ad relevance in the Search, and I think they'll extend this same algorithm to Maps as well.Here are more news links and blog discussion I have pulled together to help you understand analysis from various angles:Google Maps API to get opt-out advertising? - ZDNet Blog, Apr.3/06: This ZDNet blog post outlines the changes in the exact wording changes in the API terms that refer to advertising.Google Takes Its Maps Into Local Ad Market - DMNews, Apr.3/06: This direct marketing newspaper talks about the benefits to the local search ad industry.How To Add Your Local Business Ad In Google AdWords - SearchEngineWatch.com, Mar.31/06: This is a great step by step how-to for getting your logo and business to display in Google Local. (if you're using Firefox, you may need to scroll down a bit to view this post)Google Mellows Ad Terms For Maps - WebProNews, Apr.03/06Google Local Ads are Official - All Points Blog, Mar.31/06Google Local: Your Image and Text On Google Maps; My Questions - SearchEngineLowDown, Mar.31,06Google Maps Out Its Ad Future - PCMagazine, Mar.31/06Google local search shows image ads on maps - CNet News.com, Mar.30/06
uLocate to Present at The Smart Phone Summit Enterprise Solutions Conference
location based services
FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 4, 2006--Walt Doyle, President and CEO of uLocate Communications, a leading provider of consumer location-based services, will present at The Smart Phone Summit Enterprise Solutions Conference in Las Vegas, NV. Doyle will serve as an expert on the latest offerings for smart phone platforms as a panel member of "GPS/LBS Applications and Services for Smart Phones," beginning at 3:00 PM PDT on April 4, 2006.
During his presentation, Doyle will educate attendees on the next generation of mobile applications and discuss the evolution of the location-based services (LBS) industry. Doyle will also address how these technologies can help enhance and expand an organization's business processes, focusing on strategies for integrating LBS into current as well as future product offerings.
"The location-based services market is maturing and an increasing number of applications are emerging to take advantage of GPS-enabled phones," said Doyle. "However, as momentum continues to build, many organizations are still unaware of how to harness the power of LBS to meet and enrich their business goals and operations. In the next few years, LBS will be widely available and organizations will need to consider how it will affect them."
The Smart Phone Summit Enterprise Solutions 2006 conference brings together the top mobile and wireless industry device manufacturers, software developers, and solutions providers. It is targeted towards business executives and enterprise professionals looking for the latest in mobile and wireless applications, as well as top executives in the wireless industry.
"We are honored to have uLocate CEO Walt Doyle presenting at the upcoming Smart Phone Summit conference," said Mark Winstanley, president and conference chairman of The Smart Phone Summit. "The GPS and LBS capabilities of today's hottest phones and wireless devices are becoming an industry standard and uLocate's innovations in this space are sure to provide our attendee base of enterprise executives with new solutions to integrate into their business." Who: Walt Doyle, President and CEO, uLocate
What: "GPS/LBS Applications and Services for Smart Phones"
When: Tuesday, April 4, 2006, 3:00PM PDT - 3:50PM PDT
Where: Room N117
The Smart Phone Summit Enterprise Solutions Conference
Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV
About uLocate Communications, Inc.
uLocate Communications, Inc. (www.ulocate.com) is a leader in consumer location-based services. Its proven technology platform is the foundation for award winning services like MapQuest Find Me and direct to consumer services like Where.com. uLocate's leadership team launched some of the most recognized Internet brands like CNET, ZDNET, MapQuest and Game Spot and pioneered early mobile applications with the introduction of the uLocate Buddy Finder in early 2002.
location based services
FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 4, 2006--Walt Doyle, President and CEO of uLocate Communications, a leading provider of consumer location-based services, will present at The Smart Phone Summit Enterprise Solutions Conference in Las Vegas, NV. Doyle will serve as an expert on the latest offerings for smart phone platforms as a panel member of "GPS/LBS Applications and Services for Smart Phones," beginning at 3:00 PM PDT on April 4, 2006.
During his presentation, Doyle will educate attendees on the next generation of mobile applications and discuss the evolution of the location-based services (LBS) industry. Doyle will also address how these technologies can help enhance and expand an organization's business processes, focusing on strategies for integrating LBS into current as well as future product offerings.
"The location-based services market is maturing and an increasing number of applications are emerging to take advantage of GPS-enabled phones," said Doyle. "However, as momentum continues to build, many organizations are still unaware of how to harness the power of LBS to meet and enrich their business goals and operations. In the next few years, LBS will be widely available and organizations will need to consider how it will affect them."
The Smart Phone Summit Enterprise Solutions 2006 conference brings together the top mobile and wireless industry device manufacturers, software developers, and solutions providers. It is targeted towards business executives and enterprise professionals looking for the latest in mobile and wireless applications, as well as top executives in the wireless industry.
"We are honored to have uLocate CEO Walt Doyle presenting at the upcoming Smart Phone Summit conference," said Mark Winstanley, president and conference chairman of The Smart Phone Summit. "The GPS and LBS capabilities of today's hottest phones and wireless devices are becoming an industry standard and uLocate's innovations in this space are sure to provide our attendee base of enterprise executives with new solutions to integrate into their business." Who: Walt Doyle, President and CEO, uLocate
What: "GPS/LBS Applications and Services for Smart Phones"
When: Tuesday, April 4, 2006, 3:00PM PDT - 3:50PM PDT
Where: Room N117
The Smart Phone Summit Enterprise Solutions Conference
Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV
About uLocate Communications, Inc.
uLocate Communications, Inc. (www.ulocate.com) is a leader in consumer location-based services. Its proven technology platform is the foundation for award winning services like MapQuest Find Me and direct to consumer services like Where.com. uLocate's leadership team launched some of the most recognized Internet brands like CNET, ZDNET, MapQuest and Game Spot and pioneered early mobile applications with the introduction of the uLocate Buddy Finder in early 2002.
PRESS RELEASE Motient to Distribute WebTech's Quadrant Solution
location based services
BURNABY, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 04/04/2006 -- WebTech Wireless Inc. (TSX VENTURE:WEW), a leading supplier of mobile telematics, today announced it has signed a distribution agreement enabling Motient Communications (PINK SHEETS:MNCP), a leading provider of wireless data solutions to distribute its Quadrant™ Fleet Management products and services. Through this partnership, Quadrant solutions will be offered to a wider variety of organizations and markets.
This agreement reaffirms WebTech's commitment to grow its core markets by strengthening and expanding its distribution channels with world class partners. WebTech's commitment to resellers encompasses a proven and reliable suite of fleet management solutions and technical support.
"We are excited to be adding WebTech's Telematics products and services to our iMotient Solutions™ suite of wireless data products. Combining WebTech's experience in fleet telematics with Motient's expertise in wireless data means that we can broaden our service offerings to delivery, rental and service industries as well as any other segment that can benefit from a Fleet Management solution," said Deb Peterson, SVP, Systems and Business Development, of Motient Communications.
"Entering into a distribution agreement with Motient strengthens the relevance of our products and services for the telematics marketplace, and further establishes WebTech as telematics market leader," commented Neil Chan, Senior VP of Business Development, WebTech Wireless.
About WebTech Wireless Inc.
WebTech Wireless Inc. (TSX VENTURE:WEW) is a global Telematics, location-based services provider that develops, manufactures, and delivers turnkey wireless solutions designed to improve productivity and profitability. WebTech products include wireless hardware and software services running on cellular and satellite networks, and include Automatic Vehicle Location, Mapping, Reporting, Vehicle Maintenance, Driver Status, In-vehicle Telemetry, Messaging, In-vehicle Navigation, and wireless application and Internet connectivity. WebTech is currently providing devices and services worldwide in eight languages to over forty-one countries covering five continents. WebTech's scalable solutions are used by a broad range of small, medium, Fortune 500 companies and governments. For more information, please visit www.webtechwireless.com.
About Motient Communications
Motient Communications is a Data MVNO providing wireless M2M and Telemetry solutions to Fortune 500 and the small to medium enterprise business markets. Motient draws on over 15 years of wireless data experience as a network operator to offer one source support and wireless consulting services utilizing the Sprint (CDMA/1xRTT) and Cingular (GPRS) data networks for virtually ubiquitous national coverage. Motient, along with our partners, simplifies the wireless experience and enhances the performance, efficiency, security and cost-effectiveness of enterprise wireless data implementations while providing the lowest kilobyte rate plans in the industry and customized tools to manage that data. For additional information on Motient, please visit the company's website at www.motient.com or call 1-800-MOTIENT.
Forward Looking-Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties pertaining to, but not limited to product plans, timing, content, and pricing of products, market and industry expectations, the wireless communications industry, the mobile fleet industry, and general economic and political conditions. Given the risks and uncertainties inherent in the markets and industries referred to in this press release, WebTech cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statements will be realized.
Trademarks are the property of their owners.
The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts:
WebTech Wireless Inc.
Deirdre O'Brien
Marketing Communications Specialist
(604) 419-8171
Email Contact
www.webtechwireless.com
Spirit Communications - Press/Media Contact
Asa Zanatta
(604) 408-1389 or Cell: (604) 724-7755
Email Contact
Pacific Orca Capital - Investor Relations Contact
R. Joe Dhami
(877) 811-4518 ext. 236
Email Contact
SOURCE: WebTech Wireless Inc.
location based services
BURNABY, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 04/04/2006 -- WebTech Wireless Inc. (TSX VENTURE:WEW), a leading supplier of mobile telematics, today announced it has signed a distribution agreement enabling Motient Communications (PINK SHEETS:MNCP), a leading provider of wireless data solutions to distribute its Quadrant™ Fleet Management products and services. Through this partnership, Quadrant solutions will be offered to a wider variety of organizations and markets.
This agreement reaffirms WebTech's commitment to grow its core markets by strengthening and expanding its distribution channels with world class partners. WebTech's commitment to resellers encompasses a proven and reliable suite of fleet management solutions and technical support.
"We are excited to be adding WebTech's Telematics products and services to our iMotient Solutions™ suite of wireless data products. Combining WebTech's experience in fleet telematics with Motient's expertise in wireless data means that we can broaden our service offerings to delivery, rental and service industries as well as any other segment that can benefit from a Fleet Management solution," said Deb Peterson, SVP, Systems and Business Development, of Motient Communications.
"Entering into a distribution agreement with Motient strengthens the relevance of our products and services for the telematics marketplace, and further establishes WebTech as telematics market leader," commented Neil Chan, Senior VP of Business Development, WebTech Wireless.
About WebTech Wireless Inc.
WebTech Wireless Inc. (TSX VENTURE:WEW) is a global Telematics, location-based services provider that develops, manufactures, and delivers turnkey wireless solutions designed to improve productivity and profitability. WebTech products include wireless hardware and software services running on cellular and satellite networks, and include Automatic Vehicle Location, Mapping, Reporting, Vehicle Maintenance, Driver Status, In-vehicle Telemetry, Messaging, In-vehicle Navigation, and wireless application and Internet connectivity. WebTech is currently providing devices and services worldwide in eight languages to over forty-one countries covering five continents. WebTech's scalable solutions are used by a broad range of small, medium, Fortune 500 companies and governments. For more information, please visit www.webtechwireless.com.
About Motient Communications
Motient Communications is a Data MVNO providing wireless M2M and Telemetry solutions to Fortune 500 and the small to medium enterprise business markets. Motient draws on over 15 years of wireless data experience as a network operator to offer one source support and wireless consulting services utilizing the Sprint (CDMA/1xRTT) and Cingular (GPRS) data networks for virtually ubiquitous national coverage. Motient, along with our partners, simplifies the wireless experience and enhances the performance, efficiency, security and cost-effectiveness of enterprise wireless data implementations while providing the lowest kilobyte rate plans in the industry and customized tools to manage that data. For additional information on Motient, please visit the company's website at www.motient.com or call 1-800-MOTIENT.
Forward Looking-Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties pertaining to, but not limited to product plans, timing, content, and pricing of products, market and industry expectations, the wireless communications industry, the mobile fleet industry, and general economic and political conditions. Given the risks and uncertainties inherent in the markets and industries referred to in this press release, WebTech cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statements will be realized.
Trademarks are the property of their owners.
The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts:
WebTech Wireless Inc.
Deirdre O'Brien
Marketing Communications Specialist
(604) 419-8171
Email Contact
www.webtechwireless.com
Spirit Communications - Press/Media Contact
Asa Zanatta
(604) 408-1389 or Cell: (604) 724-7755
Email Contact
Pacific Orca Capital - Investor Relations Contact
R. Joe Dhami
(877) 811-4518 ext. 236
Email Contact
SOURCE: WebTech Wireless Inc.
Induslogic Acquires Lambent: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
location based services
VIENNA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 4, 2006--Induslogic Inc., a leader in outsourced product development, today announced it has reached an agreement to acquire Nagpur, India-based, Lambent, a global leader for mobile product engineering services. The acquisition is a key step in Induslogic's quest for leadership in the outsourced software product development market. The company will significantly increase Induslogic's existing Mobile Center of Excellence, extending the company's capabilities to partner with leaders in mobile technology to assist them in building robust, effective and dynamic mobile software solutions that address the constantly changing standards and technologies.
ADVERTISEMENT
var yad_clk='http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12dt5varm/M=397153.7974071.8891737.1383221/D=fin/S=7811759:LREC/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1144223878/A=3295456/R=0/id=streaming/*';
on error resume next
km_f2 = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.2")))
km_f3 = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.3")))
km_f4 = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.4")))
km_f5 = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.5")))
km_f6 = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.6")))
km_f7 = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.7")))
km_f8 = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.8")))
km_f9 = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.9")))
if (window.yzq_a == null) document.write("");
if (window.yzq_a)
{
yzq_a('p', 'P=Pwoza9FJqz.dzpg1Qq41lABRyzSCiEQzXGYACnnQ&T=1cupmkfje%2fX%3d1144216678%2fE%3d7811759%2fR%3dfin%2fK%3d5%2fV%3d1.1%2fW%3d8%2fY%3dYAHOO%2fF%3d3527991331%2fH%3dY29icmFuZD0iPGEgaHJlZj1odHRwOi8vd3d3LmJ1c2luZXNzd2lyZS5jb20.PGltZyBib3JkZXI9MCBzcmM9aHR0cDovL3VzLmkxLnlpbWcuY29tL3VzLnlpbWcuY29tL2kvdXMvZmkvZ3IvcGFydG5lcl9sb2dvcy9idXNpbmVzc3dpcmVfMTcweDMzX2xvZ28uZ2lmIGFsdD1CdXNpbmVzc1dpcmUuY29tPjwvYT4iIGNhY2hlaGludD0iNzgxMTc1OSIgY2FjaGVoaW50PSI3ODExNzU5Ig--%2fS%3d1%2fJ%3dFFAA49D1');
yzq_a('a', '&U=139pprpkg%2fN%3dTDYQB0LaX.M-%2fC%3d397153.7974071.8891737.1383221%2fD%3dLREC%2fB%3d3295456');
}
Established in 2000, Lambent was an early adopter of Qualcomm's application development platform, binary runtime environment for wireless (BREW), and today has more than 200 employees dedicated to leveraging BREW technologies to partner with leaders in the development and testing of innovative wireless gaming and location based services (LBS) applications. Lambent has numerous ongoing development relationships, including firms such as Sony Digital, Electronic Arts, iFone and Konami.
"As a best-of-breed provider of mobile product engineering services, Lambent significantly extends Induslogic's services reach and capabilities," said Peter Harrison, CEO at Induslogic. "The addition of Lambent's development teams' expertise in BREW and J2ME technologies will further accelerate mobile product development, test and porting for our partners. We are excited to make Lambent part of the family as we continue to raise the bar in outsourced software development services globally."
Induslogic already has partnerships with leading mobile solutions companies, including Gemalto, Par3, Polaris Wireless, Mobile365, SMS.ac and Telecommunication Systems Inc. In addition to mobile solutions, Induslogic partners with emerging software companies within the financial services, telecommunications, payment and consumer Internet markets.
"Induslogic's reputation and expertise is well known within the industry," said Shashikant Chaudhary, president and CEO at Lambent. "Our partners include many of the leaders in the mobile industry and increasingly they look to us to be an end-to-end services provider. Our merger with Induslogic will boost our ability to deliver a more complete range of services that include a broader range of mobile skills and services."
About Induslogic Inc.
Induslogic Inc. is a global leader in the market for outsourced software product development. The company's mission is to partner with the worlds emerging software leaders to help them bring great products to market in less time and at less cost. Induslogic has developed a unique model of partnering with companies to create a dedicated, virtual extension of their team offshore. With ongoing partnerships with more than 60 technology firms and one hundred percent reference-ability, its track record is second to none.
Induslogic is headquartered just outside Washington, D.C. with a global services campus on the outskirts of New Delhi, India. Its partners range from small and mid-size software companies to some of the leading technology companies in the world such as AOL, Gemalto and IBM. By leveraging its global facilities, world-class engineers and its proven platform and method for enabling distributed agile product engineering, a partnership with Induslogic increases quality while dramatically reducing timelines and operating costs, often by more than sixty percent. For more information please visit www.induslogic.com.
About Lambent Pty.
Established in 2000, Lambent is a global leader for mobile product engineering services. Lambent is headquartered in India with a 200 people development center and has offices in the US at San Diego. Lambent uses a perfect balance of onshore and offshore presence to ensure time and cost savings with high quality solutions. Lambent is an authenticated BREW developer, Microsoft Certified Partner, ISO 9001 and Tick-IT certified and boasts of an extensive list of long-term clients including Fortune 500 Enterprise and most of the leading Mobile Games Producers and Location Based Solutions companies.
QUALCOMM and BREW are registered trademarks of QUALCOMM Incorporated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
location based services
VIENNA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 4, 2006--Induslogic Inc., a leader in outsourced product development, today announced it has reached an agreement to acquire Nagpur, India-based, Lambent, a global leader for mobile product engineering services. The acquisition is a key step in Induslogic's quest for leadership in the outsourced software product development market. The company will significantly increase Induslogic's existing Mobile Center of Excellence, extending the company's capabilities to partner with leaders in mobile technology to assist them in building robust, effective and dynamic mobile software solutions that address the constantly changing standards and technologies.
ADVERTISEMENT
var yad_clk='http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12dt5varm/M=397153.7974071.8891737.1383221/D=fin/S=7811759:LREC/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1144223878/A=3295456/R=0/id=streaming/*';
on error resume next
km_f2 = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.2")))
km_f3 = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.3")))
km_f4 = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.4")))
km_f5 = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.5")))
km_f6 = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.6")))
km_f7 = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.7")))
km_f8 = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.8")))
km_f9 = (IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash.9")))
if (window.yzq_a == null) document.write("");
if (window.yzq_a)
{
yzq_a('p', 'P=Pwoza9FJqz.dzpg1Qq41lABRyzSCiEQzXGYACnnQ&T=1cupmkfje%2fX%3d1144216678%2fE%3d7811759%2fR%3dfin%2fK%3d5%2fV%3d1.1%2fW%3d8%2fY%3dYAHOO%2fF%3d3527991331%2fH%3dY29icmFuZD0iPGEgaHJlZj1odHRwOi8vd3d3LmJ1c2luZXNzd2lyZS5jb20.PGltZyBib3JkZXI9MCBzcmM9aHR0cDovL3VzLmkxLnlpbWcuY29tL3VzLnlpbWcuY29tL2kvdXMvZmkvZ3IvcGFydG5lcl9sb2dvcy9idXNpbmVzc3dpcmVfMTcweDMzX2xvZ28uZ2lmIGFsdD1CdXNpbmVzc1dpcmUuY29tPjwvYT4iIGNhY2hlaGludD0iNzgxMTc1OSIgY2FjaGVoaW50PSI3ODExNzU5Ig--%2fS%3d1%2fJ%3dFFAA49D1');
yzq_a('a', '&U=139pprpkg%2fN%3dTDYQB0LaX.M-%2fC%3d397153.7974071.8891737.1383221%2fD%3dLREC%2fB%3d3295456');
}
Established in 2000, Lambent was an early adopter of Qualcomm's application development platform, binary runtime environment for wireless (BREW), and today has more than 200 employees dedicated to leveraging BREW technologies to partner with leaders in the development and testing of innovative wireless gaming and location based services (LBS) applications. Lambent has numerous ongoing development relationships, including firms such as Sony Digital, Electronic Arts, iFone and Konami.
"As a best-of-breed provider of mobile product engineering services, Lambent significantly extends Induslogic's services reach and capabilities," said Peter Harrison, CEO at Induslogic. "The addition of Lambent's development teams' expertise in BREW and J2ME technologies will further accelerate mobile product development, test and porting for our partners. We are excited to make Lambent part of the family as we continue to raise the bar in outsourced software development services globally."
Induslogic already has partnerships with leading mobile solutions companies, including Gemalto, Par3, Polaris Wireless, Mobile365, SMS.ac and Telecommunication Systems Inc. In addition to mobile solutions, Induslogic partners with emerging software companies within the financial services, telecommunications, payment and consumer Internet markets.
"Induslogic's reputation and expertise is well known within the industry," said Shashikant Chaudhary, president and CEO at Lambent. "Our partners include many of the leaders in the mobile industry and increasingly they look to us to be an end-to-end services provider. Our merger with Induslogic will boost our ability to deliver a more complete range of services that include a broader range of mobile skills and services."
About Induslogic Inc.
Induslogic Inc. is a global leader in the market for outsourced software product development. The company's mission is to partner with the worlds emerging software leaders to help them bring great products to market in less time and at less cost. Induslogic has developed a unique model of partnering with companies to create a dedicated, virtual extension of their team offshore. With ongoing partnerships with more than 60 technology firms and one hundred percent reference-ability, its track record is second to none.
Induslogic is headquartered just outside Washington, D.C. with a global services campus on the outskirts of New Delhi, India. Its partners range from small and mid-size software companies to some of the leading technology companies in the world such as AOL, Gemalto and IBM. By leveraging its global facilities, world-class engineers and its proven platform and method for enabling distributed agile product engineering, a partnership with Induslogic increases quality while dramatically reducing timelines and operating costs, often by more than sixty percent. For more information please visit www.induslogic.com.
About Lambent Pty.
Established in 2000, Lambent is a global leader for mobile product engineering services. Lambent is headquartered in India with a 200 people development center and has offices in the US at San Diego. Lambent uses a perfect balance of onshore and offshore presence to ensure time and cost savings with high quality solutions. Lambent is an authenticated BREW developer, Microsoft Certified Partner, ISO 9001 and Tick-IT certified and boasts of an extensive list of long-term clients including Fortune 500 Enterprise and most of the leading Mobile Games Producers and Location Based Solutions companies.
QUALCOMM and BREW are registered trademarks of QUALCOMM Incorporated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Red Viking journal: Corporate Mobility Becomes Mainstream and Outlines the Shape of the Future with Mobile Business 2.0. Part 4
location based services
Gartner: The most significant trends shaping the Wireless and Mobile industry. The most significant trends in the wireless and mobile industry that will affect people during the next five years.
7. Mobile Business 2.0 The final trend to emerge will be mobile business 2.0, the next generation of mobile business. While the exact specifics and revenue predictions are not clear, we can clearly see the shape of mobile business 2.0 and, most importantly, what will guide it. Many web 2.0 principles will apply to mobile business 2.0, including business models, cultural behaviours, technologies and interaction. While web business often starts by searching, mobile consumers will not want to browse results on tiny screens. Gartner predicts a future of mobile 'ambient business', where consumers explore their environment to find relevant value propositions. The web is like an encyclopaedia, where you always start with the index. Mobile business 2.0 will be more like a theme park where you explore what's around you. Data will be selectively pushed to the user based on context, matching the users' needs, interests, mood, location and even recent behaviour. The use of 'snack' business and fleeting experiences will arise to exploit dead time, for example, 'buy from this shop in the next ten minutes and we'll give you a discount'. Mobile business 1.0 (or mobile commerce) failed because the industry tried to transplant all web principles into the phone (e.g. WAP). Truly valuable services have not been widely available and the location based services that we have seen have not been very sophisticated. There are opportunities for mobile operators to enable people to make better use of a few minutes of dead time than reading the news or playing a game. Location, combined with personal presence, creates transient communities, which offers an opportunity for better use of time or marketing. Even though the conditions for mass market mobile business 2.0 in Western Europe will not arrive before the 2009-2011 timeframe businesses should start planning now and exploit the short term mobile business 1.5 opportunities that exist. Immediate opportunities include providing 'what's on' information and offering bookings, simple machine-to-machine (M2M) applications, location based services, providing local information, and first generation mobile peer-to-peer (P2P) interaction. Gartner Wireless and Mobile Summit
Publ 20060403
posted by Red Viking at 11:34 AM
Links to this post:
location based services
Gartner: The most significant trends shaping the Wireless and Mobile industry. The most significant trends in the wireless and mobile industry that will affect people during the next five years.
7. Mobile Business 2.0 The final trend to emerge will be mobile business 2.0, the next generation of mobile business. While the exact specifics and revenue predictions are not clear, we can clearly see the shape of mobile business 2.0 and, most importantly, what will guide it. Many web 2.0 principles will apply to mobile business 2.0, including business models, cultural behaviours, technologies and interaction. While web business often starts by searching, mobile consumers will not want to browse results on tiny screens. Gartner predicts a future of mobile 'ambient business', where consumers explore their environment to find relevant value propositions. The web is like an encyclopaedia, where you always start with the index. Mobile business 2.0 will be more like a theme park where you explore what's around you. Data will be selectively pushed to the user based on context, matching the users' needs, interests, mood, location and even recent behaviour. The use of 'snack' business and fleeting experiences will arise to exploit dead time, for example, 'buy from this shop in the next ten minutes and we'll give you a discount'. Mobile business 1.0 (or mobile commerce) failed because the industry tried to transplant all web principles into the phone (e.g. WAP). Truly valuable services have not been widely available and the location based services that we have seen have not been very sophisticated. There are opportunities for mobile operators to enable people to make better use of a few minutes of dead time than reading the news or playing a game. Location, combined with personal presence, creates transient communities, which offers an opportunity for better use of time or marketing. Even though the conditions for mass market mobile business 2.0 in Western Europe will not arrive before the 2009-2011 timeframe businesses should start planning now and exploit the short term mobile business 1.5 opportunities that exist. Immediate opportunities include providing 'what's on' information and offering bookings, simple machine-to-machine (M2M) applications, location based services, providing local information, and first generation mobile peer-to-peer (P2P) interaction. Gartner Wireless and Mobile Summit
Publ 20060403
posted by Red Viking at 11:34 AM
Links to this post:
Unstrung - CTIA: Wireless Futures - Wireless Networking News Analysis
location based services
PREVIOUS UNSTRUNG NEWS ANALYSIS
CTIA: Wireless Futures 04.03.06 discuss >
As the telecom industry pauses after a round of major mergers and acquisitions, industry leaders, equipment manufacturers and service providers will gather in Las Vegas this week to plot out the next advances in the mobile revolution, at Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) Wireless 2006 show.
The largest event of its kind in the U.S., CTIA will attract some 40,000 attendees and will turn the Las Vegas Convention Center into a hive of deal-making, technology demos, panel discussions, and speechifying from April 5th to the 7th.
ADVERTISEMENT
Arriving on the heels of a series of major deals -- including the "merger of equals" between Alcatel (NYSE: ALA - message board; Paris: CGEP:PA) and Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU - message board), AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T - message board)'s acquisition of BellSouth Corp. (NYSE: BLS - message board) (creating a 21st-century version of Ma Bell), and Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD - message board)'s $14 billion sale of its Japanese assets to Softbank -- as well as the settlement of the RIM-NTP software patent lawsuit, the rapid proliferation of wireless mesh networks across major U.S. cities, and the ratification of a standard for 802.16e, or WiMax, this year's CTIA comes at a time of fast changing alliances and dizzying technological change in the wireless industry.
Among the topics at the top of the agenda include the competition between WiMax and other high-speed wireless technologies, including next-generation cellular networks, to form the mobile broadband network of the future.
Meanwhile, the advent of Windows Mobile 5.0 has set up an increasingly fierce competition among Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM - message board; Toronto: RIM), maker of the popular BlackBerry mobile email solution, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - message board), and other big players to create the platform for a host of sophisticated mobile enterprise applications running over handheld devices.
At the same time, the handset world is set to be roiled by the dawn of dual-mode devices that can run over cellular and WiFi networks, setting up a new world for mobile workers who can roam freely from office-centered wireless LANs to cellular nets to public WiFi hotspots, using the same device on each. (Just today, RIM said its BlackBerry 7270 will run over wireless LAN infrastructure from Meru Networks Inc. .)
Dual-mode devices that can hop between cellular and WiFi networks have been hyped by the industry for a year or so, and during CTIA these devices will actually show up on U.S. shores.
Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT - message board) and Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK - message board) have already shown off initial dual-mode models, although they don't appear to be for sale yet in the U.S. Analyst Jack Gold, head of J. Gold Associates, expects that other vendors will have wares to show off at the show.
"I’d expect to see Samsung and LG try to move into this space, as well as Sony Ericsson and of course RIM," he says.
The big question about these phones will be how smoothly and quickly the handoff between cellular and 802.11 networks takes place. As with WiFi VOIP systems, if there is too much of a delay in handing off between the networks -- i.e., 50-plus milliseconds -- the signal could get dropped, which is obviously unacceptable for enterprise-level systems.
Unstrung will report back on this key issue for business users once we get to check out some of these phones at the show.
Devices that can tell you where you are and, possibly, where you are going should also prove to be popular in Vegas. Analyst Gold calls this "the year location-based services."
Major carriers in the U.S. have already started to offer these kinds of applications on certain phones. Cingular Wireless LLC , Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S - message board) and Verizon Wireless have all launched wireless applications recently.
— Richard Martin, Senior Editor, Unstrung and Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrungdiscuss >
reprint this article printable format email to a friend
Unstrung Talk
Post New Message
ID
Subject
Author
Date
3
Re: calypso wireless
whatupwireless
4/4/2006 5:50:19 PM
2
Re: calypso wireless
frnkblk
4/4/2006 5:22:09 PM
1
calypso wireless
cal50
4/4/2006 12:24:24 PM
Page: 1
Post New Message
This board does not reflect the views of Light Reading. These messages are only the opinion of the poster, are no substitute for your own research, and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose. The anonymity of the user cannot be guaranteed.
location based services
PREVIOUS UNSTRUNG NEWS ANALYSIS
CTIA: Wireless Futures 04.03.06 discuss >
As the telecom industry pauses after a round of major mergers and acquisitions, industry leaders, equipment manufacturers and service providers will gather in Las Vegas this week to plot out the next advances in the mobile revolution, at Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) Wireless 2006 show.
The largest event of its kind in the U.S., CTIA will attract some 40,000 attendees and will turn the Las Vegas Convention Center into a hive of deal-making, technology demos, panel discussions, and speechifying from April 5th to the 7th.
ADVERTISEMENT
Arriving on the heels of a series of major deals -- including the "merger of equals" between Alcatel (NYSE: ALA - message board; Paris: CGEP:PA) and Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU - message board), AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T - message board)'s acquisition of BellSouth Corp. (NYSE: BLS - message board) (creating a 21st-century version of Ma Bell), and Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD - message board)'s $14 billion sale of its Japanese assets to Softbank -- as well as the settlement of the RIM-NTP software patent lawsuit, the rapid proliferation of wireless mesh networks across major U.S. cities, and the ratification of a standard for 802.16e, or WiMax, this year's CTIA comes at a time of fast changing alliances and dizzying technological change in the wireless industry.
Among the topics at the top of the agenda include the competition between WiMax and other high-speed wireless technologies, including next-generation cellular networks, to form the mobile broadband network of the future.
Meanwhile, the advent of Windows Mobile 5.0 has set up an increasingly fierce competition among Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM - message board; Toronto: RIM), maker of the popular BlackBerry mobile email solution, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - message board), and other big players to create the platform for a host of sophisticated mobile enterprise applications running over handheld devices.
At the same time, the handset world is set to be roiled by the dawn of dual-mode devices that can run over cellular and WiFi networks, setting up a new world for mobile workers who can roam freely from office-centered wireless LANs to cellular nets to public WiFi hotspots, using the same device on each. (Just today, RIM said its BlackBerry 7270 will run over wireless LAN infrastructure from Meru Networks Inc. .)
Dual-mode devices that can hop between cellular and WiFi networks have been hyped by the industry for a year or so, and during CTIA these devices will actually show up on U.S. shores.
Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT - message board) and Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK - message board) have already shown off initial dual-mode models, although they don't appear to be for sale yet in the U.S. Analyst Jack Gold, head of J. Gold Associates, expects that other vendors will have wares to show off at the show.
"I’d expect to see Samsung and LG try to move into this space, as well as Sony Ericsson and of course RIM," he says.
The big question about these phones will be how smoothly and quickly the handoff between cellular and 802.11 networks takes place. As with WiFi VOIP systems, if there is too much of a delay in handing off between the networks -- i.e., 50-plus milliseconds -- the signal could get dropped, which is obviously unacceptable for enterprise-level systems.
Unstrung will report back on this key issue for business users once we get to check out some of these phones at the show.
Devices that can tell you where you are and, possibly, where you are going should also prove to be popular in Vegas. Analyst Gold calls this "the year location-based services."
Major carriers in the U.S. have already started to offer these kinds of applications on certain phones. Cingular Wireless LLC , Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S - message board) and Verizon Wireless have all launched wireless applications recently.
— Richard Martin, Senior Editor, Unstrung and Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrungdiscuss >
reprint this article printable format email to a friend
Unstrung Talk
Post New Message
ID
Subject
Author
Date
3
Re: calypso wireless
whatupwireless
4/4/2006 5:50:19 PM
2
Re: calypso wireless
frnkblk
4/4/2006 5:22:09 PM
1
calypso wireless
cal50
4/4/2006 12:24:24 PM
Page: 1
Post New Message
This board does not reflect the views of Light Reading. These messages are only the opinion of the poster, are no substitute for your own research, and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose. The anonymity of the user cannot be guaranteed.
Motorola Announces Razr V3m Music Phone � Mobile Wireless News
location based services
Motorola announced today the new V3m Razr for CMDA networks. The V3m offers an integrated music player similar to the V3i which offers iTunes software. Motorola did not mention if the V3m would support iTunes or a custom application of their own.
The ultra slim Motorola RAZR V3m with integrated music player offers consumers a seamless, mobile music solution housed in the award-winning RAZR design. The RAZR V3m’s gorgeous metallic finish is complemented by the hottest multimedia technology and superior power. The handset is equipped with all the tools today’s mobile user demands: ample storage, stereo headset support, Bluetooth wireless technology and speech recognition calling, Location Based Services Ready, integrated 1.3 megapixel camera and video-capture and playback capabilities.
The Motorola V3m is expected to be available mid-2006, pricing and provider support have not yet been announced.
location based services
Motorola announced today the new V3m Razr for CMDA networks. The V3m offers an integrated music player similar to the V3i which offers iTunes software. Motorola did not mention if the V3m would support iTunes or a custom application of their own.
The ultra slim Motorola RAZR V3m with integrated music player offers consumers a seamless, mobile music solution housed in the award-winning RAZR design. The RAZR V3m’s gorgeous metallic finish is complemented by the hottest multimedia technology and superior power. The handset is equipped with all the tools today’s mobile user demands: ample storage, stereo headset support, Bluetooth wireless technology and speech recognition calling, Location Based Services Ready, integrated 1.3 megapixel camera and video-capture and playback capabilities.
The Motorola V3m is expected to be available mid-2006, pricing and provider support have not yet been announced.
Get Rugged with the Motorola i580 Phone - Gizmodo
location based services
This phone was designed to meet strict military specifications for resistance from blowing rain, dust, shock and vibration. It has push to talk, Bluetooth, 1.3-megapixel camera, rubber exterior, MP3 player, GPS for location-based services and TransFlash memory expansion. This could be an excellent phone for the outdoorsy types or bitter ex-girlfriends who always seem to throw their phones at the wall and insist you buy them a new one because it was your fault that they were so damn mad, I mean honestly, owning a fleshlight shouldn’t be considered cheating…oh, this phone is available through Sprint-Nextel.
Motorola i580 Phone [Mobiledia]
location based services
This phone was designed to meet strict military specifications for resistance from blowing rain, dust, shock and vibration. It has push to talk, Bluetooth, 1.3-megapixel camera, rubber exterior, MP3 player, GPS for location-based services and TransFlash memory expansion. This could be an excellent phone for the outdoorsy types or bitter ex-girlfriends who always seem to throw their phones at the wall and insist you buy them a new one because it was your fault that they were so damn mad, I mean honestly, owning a fleshlight shouldn’t be considered cheating…oh, this phone is available through Sprint-Nextel.
Motorola i580 Phone [Mobiledia]
Mobile Analyst Watch: Gartner: Corporate Mobility Becomes Mainstream and Outlines the Shape of the Future with Mobile Busi
location based services
Here are the lengthy highlights from the annual Gartner Wireless and Mobile Summit. Nick Jones at Gartner "outlined Gartner's view of the most significant trends in the wireless and mobile industry that will affect people during the next five years." Here are his comments:
Mobile operators under threat
Jones said, "Mobile operators are under increasing threat from the large Internet companies such as Google and Yahoo!, who are targeting a slice of the revenue from millions of subscribers and are prepared to disrupt established business models to get it. The next generation of the Internet, Web 2.0, has opened up opportunities for these 'new kids on the block' to move into the mobile market, as illustrated by Google's recent deal with Vodafone to develop search engines on mobile phones."
Jones added, "This is a race for innovation and operators are not in pole position. There are opportunities for operators to partner with Internet based providers such as Google or other application sources to package multiple services and make them available on mobile phones. For example, partnering with an Internet Instant Messaging (IM) provider and enriching the service with improved mobile presence to create a really compelling application."
Gartner warned that "some mobile operators will see their profit margins decrease by 20-25 percent in the next three to five years. Opportunities for mobile operators moving forward include convergence and bundling, new managed services, new client devices and new partnerships with third parties."
Mobile email
Gartner predicts that "wireless email users worldwide will reach 20 million in 2006 and 100 million in 2009." Jones said, "Mobile email has primarily been a niche application for executives, largely based on BlackBerry. However, it is on the cusp of becoming main stream also for middle management and it will eventually pervade the enterprise as email did a decade ago."
Gartner predicted that "by 2010, wireless email will be a commodity and organisations will no longer need to cost-justify investments." It also forecasted "by 2008, Microsoft will achieve feature parity with Research in Motion (RIM) and become the dominant email provider."
Mobile collaboration
Jones said, "Mobile collaboration is emerging in response to a need for increased IT support for 'soft' collaborative tasks combined with greater staff mobility." Jones highlighted that "people are no longer fixed in one place and this means they need more support for mobile collaborative work. Geographically distributed knowledge workers will be both highly valuable to the organisation, and sophisticated enough to be aware of a wide range of consumer mobile technologies."
Jones concluded that "Mobile technology and market trends will facilitate collaborative applications. We will see increasingly powerful smartphones that can use Bluetooth, cellular and WiFi enter the market. In addition, consumers and employees are becoming more familiar with web based collaboration tools such as blogs and Wikis, which will speed up the acceptance of the mobile equivalents when they come to market."
Corporate Mobility
According to Jones, mobility is becoming "increasingly controlled and managed as part of corporate architecture and strategy...As mobility becomes mainstream, enterprises are seeing the need to formalise this by developing mobile policies and strategies. They are making strategic decisions, such as which vendor will be their strategic mobile partner, for the first time."
Consumerisation
Gartner believes that "growing integration of mobile and wireless technologies into every aspect of life; home, office, home office, family, car and recreation, present both risks and opportunities for the enterprise."
Jones said, "Banning consumer technology from employee-owned devices is unrealistic, unverifiable and naive. Banning consumer tools is also counter productive, because employee's experiments will discover new ways to perform tasks in new and effective ways. Prevention will stifle innovation, so companies should educate their employees about the risks, define policies and be prepared to invest promptly in corporate solutions when users discover valuable applications."
Growth of Smartphones
Gartner believes "a much higher audience of consumers and enterprises will be able to afford a mobile device that can run sophisticated applications," and predicted that "smartphone sales in Western Europe will grow at a 49 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2005 and 2009. By 2009, one in three mobile handset phones will be a smartphone."
Mobile Business 2.0
Jones said, "The final trend to emerge will be mobile business 2.0, the next generation of mobile business. While the exact specifics and revenue predictions are not clear, we can clearly see the shape of mobile business 2.0 and, most importantly, what will guide it."
Jones added, "The web is like an encyclopaedia, where you always start with the index. Mobile business 2.0 will be more like a theme park where you explore what's around you."
Gartner believes in Mobile business 2.0, "data will be selectively pushed to the user based on context, matching the users' needs, interests, mood, location and even recent behaviour. The use of 'snack' business and fleeting experiences will arise to exploit dead time, for example, 'buy from this shop in the next ten minutes and we'll give you a discount'."
Jones concluded that "even though the conditions for mass market mobile business 2.0 in Western Europe will not arrive before the 2009-2011 timeframe, businesses should start planning now and exploit the short term mobile business 1.5 opportunities that exist. Immediate opportunities include providing 'what's on' information and offering bookings, simple machine-to-machine (M2M) applications, location based services, providing local information, and first generation mobile peer-to-peer (P2P) interaction."
posted by John @ 4:36 PM Comment (0) Trackback (0)
location based services
Here are the lengthy highlights from the annual Gartner Wireless and Mobile Summit. Nick Jones at Gartner "outlined Gartner's view of the most significant trends in the wireless and mobile industry that will affect people during the next five years." Here are his comments:
Mobile operators under threat
Jones said, "Mobile operators are under increasing threat from the large Internet companies such as Google and Yahoo!, who are targeting a slice of the revenue from millions of subscribers and are prepared to disrupt established business models to get it. The next generation of the Internet, Web 2.0, has opened up opportunities for these 'new kids on the block' to move into the mobile market, as illustrated by Google's recent deal with Vodafone to develop search engines on mobile phones."
Jones added, "This is a race for innovation and operators are not in pole position. There are opportunities for operators to partner with Internet based providers such as Google or other application sources to package multiple services and make them available on mobile phones. For example, partnering with an Internet Instant Messaging (IM) provider and enriching the service with improved mobile presence to create a really compelling application."
Gartner warned that "some mobile operators will see their profit margins decrease by 20-25 percent in the next three to five years. Opportunities for mobile operators moving forward include convergence and bundling, new managed services, new client devices and new partnerships with third parties."
Mobile email
Gartner predicts that "wireless email users worldwide will reach 20 million in 2006 and 100 million in 2009." Jones said, "Mobile email has primarily been a niche application for executives, largely based on BlackBerry. However, it is on the cusp of becoming main stream also for middle management and it will eventually pervade the enterprise as email did a decade ago."
Gartner predicted that "by 2010, wireless email will be a commodity and organisations will no longer need to cost-justify investments." It also forecasted "by 2008, Microsoft will achieve feature parity with Research in Motion (RIM) and become the dominant email provider."
Mobile collaboration
Jones said, "Mobile collaboration is emerging in response to a need for increased IT support for 'soft' collaborative tasks combined with greater staff mobility." Jones highlighted that "people are no longer fixed in one place and this means they need more support for mobile collaborative work. Geographically distributed knowledge workers will be both highly valuable to the organisation, and sophisticated enough to be aware of a wide range of consumer mobile technologies."
Jones concluded that "Mobile technology and market trends will facilitate collaborative applications. We will see increasingly powerful smartphones that can use Bluetooth, cellular and WiFi enter the market. In addition, consumers and employees are becoming more familiar with web based collaboration tools such as blogs and Wikis, which will speed up the acceptance of the mobile equivalents when they come to market."
Corporate Mobility
According to Jones, mobility is becoming "increasingly controlled and managed as part of corporate architecture and strategy...As mobility becomes mainstream, enterprises are seeing the need to formalise this by developing mobile policies and strategies. They are making strategic decisions, such as which vendor will be their strategic mobile partner, for the first time."
Consumerisation
Gartner believes that "growing integration of mobile and wireless technologies into every aspect of life; home, office, home office, family, car and recreation, present both risks and opportunities for the enterprise."
Jones said, "Banning consumer technology from employee-owned devices is unrealistic, unverifiable and naive. Banning consumer tools is also counter productive, because employee's experiments will discover new ways to perform tasks in new and effective ways. Prevention will stifle innovation, so companies should educate their employees about the risks, define policies and be prepared to invest promptly in corporate solutions when users discover valuable applications."
Growth of Smartphones
Gartner believes "a much higher audience of consumers and enterprises will be able to afford a mobile device that can run sophisticated applications," and predicted that "smartphone sales in Western Europe will grow at a 49 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2005 and 2009. By 2009, one in three mobile handset phones will be a smartphone."
Mobile Business 2.0
Jones said, "The final trend to emerge will be mobile business 2.0, the next generation of mobile business. While the exact specifics and revenue predictions are not clear, we can clearly see the shape of mobile business 2.0 and, most importantly, what will guide it."
Jones added, "The web is like an encyclopaedia, where you always start with the index. Mobile business 2.0 will be more like a theme park where you explore what's around you."
Gartner believes in Mobile business 2.0, "data will be selectively pushed to the user based on context, matching the users' needs, interests, mood, location and even recent behaviour. The use of 'snack' business and fleeting experiences will arise to exploit dead time, for example, 'buy from this shop in the next ten minutes and we'll give you a discount'."
Jones concluded that "even though the conditions for mass market mobile business 2.0 in Western Europe will not arrive before the 2009-2011 timeframe, businesses should start planning now and exploit the short term mobile business 1.5 opportunities that exist. Immediate opportunities include providing 'what's on' information and offering bookings, simple machine-to-machine (M2M) applications, location based services, providing local information, and first generation mobile peer-to-peer (P2P) interaction."
posted by John @ 4:36 PM Comment (0) Trackback (0)
Monday, April 03, 2006
Google Maps The Way To Version 2
location based services
The official launch of the Google Maps API Version 2 provides a number of tweaks to enhance its performance and decrease the number of memory leaks that happened in previous versions.
Sweet new features and friendlier terms of use accompany the latest news about Google Maps. Product manager Bret Taylor noted that Google Maps has officially started the beta test of the new version in the Maps blog today.
"Version 2 cleans up much of the API and improves performance and stability in fundamental ways based on the feedback of many API sites," he wrote. Tops among the updated features: a JavaScript download that is half the size of the old Maps API JavaScript download, and a GUnload method that can be called to destroy most circular references.
Said Taylor, "On Google Maps, this has virtually eliminated memory leaks in IE."
Google's newer friendlier self manifested in the updated terms of use for the Maps API. Its 90-day announcement to developers of forthcoming advertising represents a change from the previous terms, which allowed Google to drop in ads without notice into Maps.
A Google representative I contacted about the change in terms regarding ads could not elaborate on what would happen if a developer refuses to accept advertising when contacted and responding to Google within the 90-day window. "We have no specific plans to announce at this time in regards to advertising," came the response.
They also removed the page view limits, which had been a sticking point with many developers. "If, however, your site gets more than 500,000 page views per day, we ask that you talk to us before you launch," Taylor said.
---
location based services
The official launch of the Google Maps API Version 2 provides a number of tweaks to enhance its performance and decrease the number of memory leaks that happened in previous versions.
Sweet new features and friendlier terms of use accompany the latest news about Google Maps. Product manager Bret Taylor noted that Google Maps has officially started the beta test of the new version in the Maps blog today.
"Version 2 cleans up much of the API and improves performance and stability in fundamental ways based on the feedback of many API sites," he wrote. Tops among the updated features: a JavaScript download that is half the size of the old Maps API JavaScript download, and a GUnload method that can be called to destroy most circular references.
Said Taylor, "On Google Maps, this has virtually eliminated memory leaks in IE."
Google's newer friendlier self manifested in the updated terms of use for the Maps API. Its 90-day announcement to developers of forthcoming advertising represents a change from the previous terms, which allowed Google to drop in ads without notice into Maps.
A Google representative I contacted about the change in terms regarding ads could not elaborate on what would happen if a developer refuses to accept advertising when contacted and responding to Google within the 90-day window. "We have no specific plans to announce at this time in regards to advertising," came the response.
They also removed the page view limits, which had been a sticking point with many developers. "If, however, your site gets more than 500,000 page views per day, we ask that you talk to us before you launch," Taylor said.
---
MapQuest unveils navigation help on mobile phones | Tech News on ZDNet
location based services
AOL unit MapQuest on Monday unveiled a mobile map service that customers can use on their cellular phones, complete with voice directions, text and maps in a bid to expand on the popularity of its Internet maps.
The MapQuest Navigator will be marketed as a cheaper alternative to navigation systems built into cars.
In order to get the software for the service to consumers' phones, MapQuest is working on agreements with cell phone operators. The service could work in cellphones sold by Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel, the company said.
"A big part of our future is mobile ... We have users of mapquest.com that already trust us. This is just a better way for us to guide our users to their destinations," said Alan Beiagi, MapQuest's general manager of wireless.
MapQuest, which has about 40 million monthly users of its Internet driving directions and mapping services, hopes its online popularity and features such as turn-by-turn voice prompts give it an edge over offers from rivals such as Google Inc. and InfoSpace.
Sprint recently started offering directions and other local data from InfoSpace.
The MapQuest Navigator aims to commercialize location-pinpointing technology that is being put into most U.S. mobile phones, along with MapQuest's online map technology.
U.S. cell phone service providers are required by law to put location technology in new phones in order to help public safety workers find callers in an emergency.
But while a brand can help gain consumers' attention in what is an emerging market, it is not enough unless the service works well, independent media analyst Greg Sterling said.
"It gives it a jump start, but brand is only as good as what it delivers," said Sterling, who said he believes that such services are "several years away from mainstream adoption."
Sterling said he had not test-driven the application. According to mobile research firm m:metrics, about 4.3 percent of U.S. mobile users used map services on their phone in the month of January.
Beiagi expects MapQuest's combination of text with voice prompts and text instructions will help make such services attractive for consumers.
"If you're in a car...you want to be able to make a decision extremely quickly. The best way to do it is to have a voice prompt," he said.
He said that pricing of the service would depend on carriers but he hopes consumers would pay subscription fees in the ballpark of about $4 or more a month.
AOL and MapQuest are owned by Time Warner.
© 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
location based services
AOL unit MapQuest on Monday unveiled a mobile map service that customers can use on their cellular phones, complete with voice directions, text and maps in a bid to expand on the popularity of its Internet maps.
The MapQuest Navigator will be marketed as a cheaper alternative to navigation systems built into cars.
In order to get the software for the service to consumers' phones, MapQuest is working on agreements with cell phone operators. The service could work in cellphones sold by Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel, the company said.
"A big part of our future is mobile ... We have users of mapquest.com that already trust us. This is just a better way for us to guide our users to their destinations," said Alan Beiagi, MapQuest's general manager of wireless.
MapQuest, which has about 40 million monthly users of its Internet driving directions and mapping services, hopes its online popularity and features such as turn-by-turn voice prompts give it an edge over offers from rivals such as Google Inc. and InfoSpace.
Sprint recently started offering directions and other local data from InfoSpace.
The MapQuest Navigator aims to commercialize location-pinpointing technology that is being put into most U.S. mobile phones, along with MapQuest's online map technology.
U.S. cell phone service providers are required by law to put location technology in new phones in order to help public safety workers find callers in an emergency.
But while a brand can help gain consumers' attention in what is an emerging market, it is not enough unless the service works well, independent media analyst Greg Sterling said.
"It gives it a jump start, but brand is only as good as what it delivers," said Sterling, who said he believes that such services are "several years away from mainstream adoption."
Sterling said he had not test-driven the application. According to mobile research firm m:metrics, about 4.3 percent of U.S. mobile users used map services on their phone in the month of January.
Beiagi expects MapQuest's combination of text with voice prompts and text instructions will help make such services attractive for consumers.
"If you're in a car...you want to be able to make a decision extremely quickly. The best way to do it is to have a voice prompt," he said.
He said that pricing of the service would depend on carriers but he hopes consumers would pay subscription fees in the ballpark of about $4 or more a month.
AOL and MapQuest are owned by Time Warner.
© 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
RED HERRING | Driving With MapQuest
Never get lost again. The technology synonymous with online mapping is now available via cell phone.
April 3, 2006
MapQuest, one of the best-known names in Internet mapping, said Monday it is marketing two products designed to get cell phone users to their destinations.
The wholly owned subsidiary of America Online introduced MapQuest Navigator, a voice-enabled, global positioning system-based mapping service for cell phones, along with easier cell phone access to its mapping web site.
MapQuest, a commercial name that has become a synonym for obtaining online directions, partnered with Telmap, a mobile mapping and navigational solutions provider, to market MapQuest Navigator, a cell phone navigational application.
Using color maps formatted for the limited screen space available on cell phones, MapQuest Navigator provides detailed driving directions, along with graphics, text, and voice capabilities to keep cell phone users from getting lost.
The system also comes equipped with a database of millions of potential destinations, such as hotels, restaurants, theaters, and similar locations.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
Users can not only drive to their listed destinations points, they can also direct-dial the hotel, restaurant, etc., directly from the application. They can also make reservations and email or text-message the locations to friends or fellow travelers.
Shares of Time Warner, the parent company of MapQuest and AOL, rose a nickel to $16.84 in recent trading.
Cell Phone Access
MapQuest also announced the easier availability of its online site via cell phone. The cell phone functionality, which is available now, is designed for most web-enabled cell phones.
The technology, based on the web-to-mobile adaptation capabilities afforded by InforGin Ltd., allows users to access MapQuest.com by simply going to the web site.
“MapQuest Navigator and web-enabled services provide consumers with some of the most powerful and convenient solutions for finding places while they are mobile,” said Jim Greiner, vice president and general manager of MapQuest.
Location-based services (LBS) for cell phones are becoming an attractive battleground for vendors and service providers from divergent areas of the industry.
Increasingly mobile device users have become a target for location-based services such as driving directions.
Sprint, Google Target Mobile Users
Cell phone service providers such as Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless either have products in the market or are developing products for the LBS space.
On Thursday, search king Google enhanced its advertising profile among regional businesses with a new feature that allows local businesses to purchase advertising space in pop-up balloons on Google maps.
Google has made a number of bold moves in the past to capture local advertising with its specialty search sites Google Local, Google Base, and Froogle.
The new feature allows local advertisers such as the neighborhood delicatessen, hardware, or furniture store to insert advertising information, such as the business logo, along with the business address and other information in balloons that seem to hover over their locations on the map.
Google began testing the feature two weeks ago with a few advertisers, including the premier retail bookseller, Barnes & Noble. With the new feature, which went live on Thursday, Google will attempt to pull in the local business market.
Most local businesses tend to use mailed circulars, telephone directories, local radio, billboards, local newspapers, and increasingly late night cable TV to attract customers.
But with the rapid emergence of web search as a consumer conduit to general and shopping information, companies such as Google are attempting to build a local advertising profile.
Never get lost again. The technology synonymous with online mapping is now available via cell phone.
April 3, 2006
MapQuest, one of the best-known names in Internet mapping, said Monday it is marketing two products designed to get cell phone users to their destinations.
The wholly owned subsidiary of America Online introduced MapQuest Navigator, a voice-enabled, global positioning system-based mapping service for cell phones, along with easier cell phone access to its mapping web site.
MapQuest, a commercial name that has become a synonym for obtaining online directions, partnered with Telmap, a mobile mapping and navigational solutions provider, to market MapQuest Navigator, a cell phone navigational application.
Using color maps formatted for the limited screen space available on cell phones, MapQuest Navigator provides detailed driving directions, along with graphics, text, and voice capabilities to keep cell phone users from getting lost.
The system also comes equipped with a database of millions of potential destinations, such as hotels, restaurants, theaters, and similar locations.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
Users can not only drive to their listed destinations points, they can also direct-dial the hotel, restaurant, etc., directly from the application. They can also make reservations and email or text-message the locations to friends or fellow travelers.
Shares of Time Warner, the parent company of MapQuest and AOL, rose a nickel to $16.84 in recent trading.
Cell Phone Access
MapQuest also announced the easier availability of its online site via cell phone. The cell phone functionality, which is available now, is designed for most web-enabled cell phones.
The technology, based on the web-to-mobile adaptation capabilities afforded by InforGin Ltd., allows users to access MapQuest.com by simply going to the web site.
“MapQuest Navigator and web-enabled services provide consumers with some of the most powerful and convenient solutions for finding places while they are mobile,” said Jim Greiner, vice president and general manager of MapQuest.
Location-based services (LBS) for cell phones are becoming an attractive battleground for vendors and service providers from divergent areas of the industry.
Increasingly mobile device users have become a target for location-based services such as driving directions.
Sprint, Google Target Mobile Users
Cell phone service providers such as Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless either have products in the market or are developing products for the LBS space.
On Thursday, search king Google enhanced its advertising profile among regional businesses with a new feature that allows local businesses to purchase advertising space in pop-up balloons on Google maps.
Google has made a number of bold moves in the past to capture local advertising with its specialty search sites Google Local, Google Base, and Froogle.
The new feature allows local advertisers such as the neighborhood delicatessen, hardware, or furniture store to insert advertising information, such as the business logo, along with the business address and other information in balloons that seem to hover over their locations on the map.
Google began testing the feature two weeks ago with a few advertisers, including the premier retail bookseller, Barnes & Noble. With the new feature, which went live on Thursday, Google will attempt to pull in the local business market.
Most local businesses tend to use mailed circulars, telephone directories, local radio, billboards, local newspapers, and increasingly late night cable TV to attract customers.
But with the rapid emergence of web search as a consumer conduit to general and shopping information, companies such as Google are attempting to build a local advertising profile.
The Fall and Rise of Location Based Services
Location based services (LBS) were one of the new emerging technologies that appeared and fell with the WAP non-revolution. The concept of providing information and facilities based on your physical location was simple and intuitive, but over hyped. During the early days of WAP capable mobile phones, BT Cellnet in conjunction with the then un-deregulated 192 service and Yellow Pages would allow you to find such useful things as a curry house when out on the town after a few too many pints. The idea was great and full of promise, but alas didn’t really work.
The public understandably were confused by the fact that if they were standing outside their favourite curry house and asked for the nearest, the service would often point them to one that was at best a few hundred yards away. The problem was that the service used the mobile network CellID to determine your location.
Each mobile service providers’ network is split up into areas called cells. Each cell is operated by one (or occasionally more) radio masts. When a mobile phone connects to the service provider’s network, it locates the strongest signal it can find and ‘logs in’ to that cell. Each cell has a unique id called the CellID. Each cell can only support a certain number of users within the area.
GSM specifies four different cell sizes. Umbrella cells cover an area also covered by smaller cells to provide coverage in any gaps and can range up to 35 kilometres. Macro cells cover country side and sub-urban areas from masts on high buildings and micro cells provide short range coverage for many users in urban and other dense usage regions. Pico cells are used in airports and major railway stations to provide single floor coverage for large numbers of users.
With 2G services these cells were on average quite large. Outside major cities (in particular London) a single cell could easily have a radius of a few kilometres. Early LBSs could not tell where within these cells you were standing. LBSs could only provide the location of the requested service that it had listed for that particular cell. For curry houses, it would list the same curry house no matter where within that cell you were, and heaven help you if you were logged into an umbrella cell.
The few survivors of the dot-com bust in 2001 have tailored themselves towards a business service rather than a consumer service. Most CellID based location services are used for asset and employee tracking, therefore performing paradigm-180. A business can employ a company to track the cell that a certain GSM receiver resides in to ensure it is in the correct location.
Whilst the early implementations of cell style location based services have died out, the idea itself has found new homes in a variety of areas.
The most well known of these areas is the search industry. Most ‘Yellow Pages’ style companies and big search engines allow you to search for shops and other service providers based off your geographic location. ‘Find the nearest’ has become a must-have feature for almost all search firms. Instead of using your current location based off a very fuzzy positioning system (like CellID), they use post (zip for our American readers) code to locate your position. This allows the service to be useful not just for your current location, but for where you plan to be in the future. It is useful to find the nearest curry house to the planned last pub on a pub crawl before you are there and too drunk to operate any kind of technology.
Satellite navigation firms are the latest to enter this area. Modern GPS-based navigation systems contain facilities to find the nearest fuel station, or other point of interest based on your current position and projected route. Garmin have recently launched hand held GPS based devices with optional data provided by Marco Polo travel guides to enable users to find recommended restaurants and museums during their journeys. Garmin have also begun to produce mobile phone based navigation and LBS products.
GPS provides a much finer resolution for LBS to use. Consumer devices with accuracy to within 100 metres in most situations, and to within 15 metres in ideal conditions, are now available on the mass market. Mid-range and high-end vehicles are sold with SatNav devices in the dashboard and more and more drivers are purchasing handheld and in-car systems. SatNav has moved out of the ‘early adopter’ bracket.
The mobile phone companies will not be outdone and find the market they visualised stolen from them. Unlike in the US, triangulation using multiple GSM transmitters has not been possible until recently (with dark rumours that this facility was reserved for the security services only). Cells are shrinking with the roll-out of 3G base stations, and it is possible to use signal strength from multiple transmitters to triangulate the position to within a few hundred meters, so better LBSs are possible.
Orange in the UK in early 2005 introduced a new service cunningly called ‘Cell-ID’ that utilised the new features of the mobile network to enable a handset to be located with a minimum accuracy of a couple of hundred metres. So far, however, this service has only been taken up by the dot-com business to business survivors.
So the market is coming full circle. With improved technology mobile based LBS should become both ubiquitous and more importantly actually useful.
Location based services (LBS) were one of the new emerging technologies that appeared and fell with the WAP non-revolution. The concept of providing information and facilities based on your physical location was simple and intuitive, but over hyped. During the early days of WAP capable mobile phones, BT Cellnet in conjunction with the then un-deregulated 192 service and Yellow Pages would allow you to find such useful things as a curry house when out on the town after a few too many pints. The idea was great and full of promise, but alas didn’t really work.
The public understandably were confused by the fact that if they were standing outside their favourite curry house and asked for the nearest, the service would often point them to one that was at best a few hundred yards away. The problem was that the service used the mobile network CellID to determine your location.
Each mobile service providers’ network is split up into areas called cells. Each cell is operated by one (or occasionally more) radio masts. When a mobile phone connects to the service provider’s network, it locates the strongest signal it can find and ‘logs in’ to that cell. Each cell has a unique id called the CellID. Each cell can only support a certain number of users within the area.
GSM specifies four different cell sizes. Umbrella cells cover an area also covered by smaller cells to provide coverage in any gaps and can range up to 35 kilometres. Macro cells cover country side and sub-urban areas from masts on high buildings and micro cells provide short range coverage for many users in urban and other dense usage regions. Pico cells are used in airports and major railway stations to provide single floor coverage for large numbers of users.
With 2G services these cells were on average quite large. Outside major cities (in particular London) a single cell could easily have a radius of a few kilometres. Early LBSs could not tell where within these cells you were standing. LBSs could only provide the location of the requested service that it had listed for that particular cell. For curry houses, it would list the same curry house no matter where within that cell you were, and heaven help you if you were logged into an umbrella cell.
The few survivors of the dot-com bust in 2001 have tailored themselves towards a business service rather than a consumer service. Most CellID based location services are used for asset and employee tracking, therefore performing paradigm-180. A business can employ a company to track the cell that a certain GSM receiver resides in to ensure it is in the correct location.
Whilst the early implementations of cell style location based services have died out, the idea itself has found new homes in a variety of areas.
The most well known of these areas is the search industry. Most ‘Yellow Pages’ style companies and big search engines allow you to search for shops and other service providers based off your geographic location. ‘Find the nearest’ has become a must-have feature for almost all search firms. Instead of using your current location based off a very fuzzy positioning system (like CellID), they use post (zip for our American readers) code to locate your position. This allows the service to be useful not just for your current location, but for where you plan to be in the future. It is useful to find the nearest curry house to the planned last pub on a pub crawl before you are there and too drunk to operate any kind of technology.
Satellite navigation firms are the latest to enter this area. Modern GPS-based navigation systems contain facilities to find the nearest fuel station, or other point of interest based on your current position and projected route. Garmin have recently launched hand held GPS based devices with optional data provided by Marco Polo travel guides to enable users to find recommended restaurants and museums during their journeys. Garmin have also begun to produce mobile phone based navigation and LBS products.
GPS provides a much finer resolution for LBS to use. Consumer devices with accuracy to within 100 metres in most situations, and to within 15 metres in ideal conditions, are now available on the mass market. Mid-range and high-end vehicles are sold with SatNav devices in the dashboard and more and more drivers are purchasing handheld and in-car systems. SatNav has moved out of the ‘early adopter’ bracket.
The mobile phone companies will not be outdone and find the market they visualised stolen from them. Unlike in the US, triangulation using multiple GSM transmitters has not been possible until recently (with dark rumours that this facility was reserved for the security services only). Cells are shrinking with the roll-out of 3G base stations, and it is possible to use signal strength from multiple transmitters to triangulate the position to within a few hundred meters, so better LBSs are possible.
Orange in the UK in early 2005 introduced a new service cunningly called ‘Cell-ID’ that utilised the new features of the mobile network to enable a handset to be located with a minimum accuracy of a couple of hundred metres. So far, however, this service has only been taken up by the dot-com business to business survivors.
So the market is coming full circle. With improved technology mobile based LBS should become both ubiquitous and more importantly actually useful.
Mobile Radicals on Location-based services
A very interesting blogpost about the fall and rise of location-based services on Mobile Radicals:
During the early days of WAP capable mobile phones, BT Cellnet in conjunction with the then un-deregulated 192 service and Yellow Pages would allow you to find such useful things as a curry house when out on the town after a few too many pints. The idea was great and full of promise, but alas didn’t really work. The public understandably were confused by the fact that if they were standing outside their favourite curry house and asked for the nearest, the service would often point them to one that was at best a few hundred yards away. The problem was that the service used the mobile network CellID to determine your location.
(…)
With 2G services these cells were on average quite large. Outside major cities (in particular London) a single cell could easily have a radius of a few kilometers. Early LBSs could not tell where within these cells you were standing. LBSs could only provide the location of the requested service that it had listed for that particular cell.
(…)
The few survivors of the dot-com bust in 2001 have tailored themselves towards a business service rather than a consumer service. Most CellID based location services are used for asset and employee tracking, therefore performing paradigm-180.
(…)
Whilst the early implementations of cell style location based services have died out, the idea itself has found new homes in a variety of areas.
The most well known of these areas is the search industry. Most ‘Yellow Pages’ style companies and big search engines allow you to search for shops and other service providers based off your geographic location. ‘Find the nearest’ has become a must-have feature for almost all search firms. Instead of using your current location based off a very fuzzy positioning system (like CellID), they use post (zip for our American readers) code to locate your position.
(…)
Satellite navigation firms are the latest to enter this area. Modern GPS-based navigation systems contain facilities to find the nearest fuel station, or other point of interest based on your current position and projected route. (…) GPS provides a much finer resolution for LBS to use. Consumer devices with accuracy to within 100 metres in most situations, and to within 15 metres in ideal conditions, are now available on the mass market.
(…)
Cells are shrinking with the roll-out of 3G base stations, and it is possible to use signal strength from multiple transmitters to triangulate the position to within a few hundred meters, so better LBSs are possible.
Why do I blog this? understanding lbs troubles and problems is interesting. I appreciate the kind of stories beginning with “The public understandably were confused by…”, a very recurrent issue with technologies.
A very interesting blogpost about the fall and rise of location-based services on Mobile Radicals:
During the early days of WAP capable mobile phones, BT Cellnet in conjunction with the then un-deregulated 192 service and Yellow Pages would allow you to find such useful things as a curry house when out on the town after a few too many pints. The idea was great and full of promise, but alas didn’t really work. The public understandably were confused by the fact that if they were standing outside their favourite curry house and asked for the nearest, the service would often point them to one that was at best a few hundred yards away. The problem was that the service used the mobile network CellID to determine your location.
(…)
With 2G services these cells were on average quite large. Outside major cities (in particular London) a single cell could easily have a radius of a few kilometers. Early LBSs could not tell where within these cells you were standing. LBSs could only provide the location of the requested service that it had listed for that particular cell.
(…)
The few survivors of the dot-com bust in 2001 have tailored themselves towards a business service rather than a consumer service. Most CellID based location services are used for asset and employee tracking, therefore performing paradigm-180.
(…)
Whilst the early implementations of cell style location based services have died out, the idea itself has found new homes in a variety of areas.
The most well known of these areas is the search industry. Most ‘Yellow Pages’ style companies and big search engines allow you to search for shops and other service providers based off your geographic location. ‘Find the nearest’ has become a must-have feature for almost all search firms. Instead of using your current location based off a very fuzzy positioning system (like CellID), they use post (zip for our American readers) code to locate your position.
(…)
Satellite navigation firms are the latest to enter this area. Modern GPS-based navigation systems contain facilities to find the nearest fuel station, or other point of interest based on your current position and projected route. (…) GPS provides a much finer resolution for LBS to use. Consumer devices with accuracy to within 100 metres in most situations, and to within 15 metres in ideal conditions, are now available on the mass market.
(…)
Cells are shrinking with the roll-out of 3G base stations, and it is possible to use signal strength from multiple transmitters to triangulate the position to within a few hundred meters, so better LBSs are possible.
Why do I blog this? understanding lbs troubles and problems is interesting. I appreciate the kind of stories beginning with “The public understandably were confused by…”, a very recurrent issue with technologies.
Open standards in location based services
Abstract
Location based services encompass broad areas of technology and the need for standards is evident for interoperability between technology components. Such components include Content & Applications, Gateways & Middleware, Network Equipment, Service Provider, End-user Devices. Seamless integration of these into a reliable Location based service requires Open standards for data exchange and application interfaces. Conventional methods of proprietary data and components have distinct disadvantages in terms of interoperability and integration and do not allow much flexibility in cost and scalability. With Open standards evolving in both GIS and Wireless technology area the Scope for viable Open standards in Location Based services have become feasible.
XML based data interchange has evolved as a clear choice and geographical data through XML has come a long way with GML3.0 standards. Challenges however exists in working together for providing interfaces to the various components and integrating as system where components can be conveniently introduced, modified or removed under an open standards framework. We discuss opportunities and threats in the path of developing such systems as we analyse the requirements of interoperability and the path to achieve it. Benefits of open location based systems are also discussed with context of consumers and service providers.
Introduction
Location based services are gaining prime importance in our increasingly mobile and highly IT enabled world. With Modern legislation and interest in utilising Geo-spatial information for providing practically useful information to users of Mobile services the scope and capability of informing, alerting and involving the user.
Location services are defined as applications that deliver location-based information where and when it is needed. Users can access these services via the desktop, Web browser, mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), pager, or other device. Diverse applications include fleet tracking, emergency dispatch, sensor monitoring, and customer location for target marketing and advertising, roadside assistance, stolen vehicle recovery, navigation, directory services, and more.
OLS Architecture
The Kelsey Group predicts that the Location-based service (LBS) market is expected to exceed $11 billion in revenue with as many as $1b Internet-enabled handsets in use by the year 2005. Also the LBS industry has the following striking features, which makes it important to have an initiative for Open standards.
300 companies comprise the LBS business space
No definition of fundamental service architecture
No agreement on best of breed
No assurance offerings work together to form end-to-end solutions
Concepts of Location based services
Location based services are primarily composed of three major components
Mobile Computation Services (Communication and computations using mobile devices)
Location Enabling Services (User Location Providing)
Location Aware Services (IP based applications)
Page 1 of 3
Abstract
Location based services encompass broad areas of technology and the need for standards is evident for interoperability between technology components. Such components include Content & Applications, Gateways & Middleware, Network Equipment, Service Provider, End-user Devices. Seamless integration of these into a reliable Location based service requires Open standards for data exchange and application interfaces. Conventional methods of proprietary data and components have distinct disadvantages in terms of interoperability and integration and do not allow much flexibility in cost and scalability. With Open standards evolving in both GIS and Wireless technology area the Scope for viable Open standards in Location Based services have become feasible.
XML based data interchange has evolved as a clear choice and geographical data through XML has come a long way with GML3.0 standards. Challenges however exists in working together for providing interfaces to the various components and integrating as system where components can be conveniently introduced, modified or removed under an open standards framework. We discuss opportunities and threats in the path of developing such systems as we analyse the requirements of interoperability and the path to achieve it. Benefits of open location based systems are also discussed with context of consumers and service providers.
Introduction
Location based services are gaining prime importance in our increasingly mobile and highly IT enabled world. With Modern legislation and interest in utilising Geo-spatial information for providing practically useful information to users of Mobile services the scope and capability of informing, alerting and involving the user.
Location services are defined as applications that deliver location-based information where and when it is needed. Users can access these services via the desktop, Web browser, mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), pager, or other device. Diverse applications include fleet tracking, emergency dispatch, sensor monitoring, and customer location for target marketing and advertising, roadside assistance, stolen vehicle recovery, navigation, directory services, and more.
OLS Architecture
The Kelsey Group predicts that the Location-based service (LBS) market is expected to exceed $11 billion in revenue with as many as $1b Internet-enabled handsets in use by the year 2005. Also the LBS industry has the following striking features, which makes it important to have an initiative for Open standards.
300 companies comprise the LBS business space
No definition of fundamental service architecture
No agreement on best of breed
No assurance offerings work together to form end-to-end solutions
Concepts of Location based services
Location based services are primarily composed of three major components
Mobile Computation Services (Communication and computations using mobile devices)
Location Enabling Services (User Location Providing)
Location Aware Services (IP based applications)
Page 1 of 3
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
