| Despite an FCC
mandate to location-enable wireless handsets by October of this year,
location-based technology may not be a reality for most American consumers until
2002, according to Cahners In-Stat Group The high-tech market research firm reports that even though location-enabled services have the potential to drive revenue growth from $37 million in 2001 to more than $13 billion in 2005, the rollout of these types of technologies will be hindered by the high costs needed to deploy them. Costs will range from hundreds of millions to over a billion dollars, depending on the determinant technology chosen and the carrier's size and number of customers. In 2002, however, many carriers worldwide, will be able to offer the ability to track mobile phones, providing not only emergency information, but also new wireless location services. "Carriers are struggling to find ways that will allow them to leverage this new infrastructure to help mitigate its costs,'' said Ken Hyers, senior analyst with In-Stat's Mobile Commerce Service. "The key to successful location-based services will be their ability to offer information that is location-sensitive, timely, and personalized for individual users. For these services to make money, they have to offer users something more valuable than what they can get through a personal computer, through a standard voice telephone call, through the radio, television or a newspaper.'' In-Stat projects that provisioning location-enabled services will help carriers offset the cost of location-enabling their networks, and will also succeed in driving data usage in a time of falling revenues for wireless voice services. In-Stat has also found that: Initial location-enabled services will include finder services, buddy list services that are linked to Instant Messaging (IM), and premium subscriptions for services that track traffic and weather, and one time charges for various other location-enabled services. Location-based services will see some of their strongest growth in personal locator services that can be used to track friends and family members. Spam type services that shower subscribers with ads based on their location will not be successful. The report, "X - Marks the Spot: Location Services & M-Commerce'', presents global revenue forecasts for location-based services and location-commerce, from 2001 through 2005. Home > Location Based Services Location
News
|
| |||||
