Customers Are Hungry for Location-Based Services
Senior analyst André Malm says turn-by-turn navigation is the best example of a category of services that has seen fundamental changes in both distribution and business models since the arrival of smartphones and on-device app stores. “First, all leading platforms now come bundled with free turn-by-turn navigation apps in key markets worldwide. Second, app stores have enabled smaller navigation-app developers to reach a broad audience with new apps that may feature premium features such as advanced 3-D graphics or low-cost maps. Before smartphones the market was dominated by the operators’ branded services that were preloaded on handsets.”
Malm adds that family locators are another app category that’s seeing significant growth as smartphone adoption increases. “Discoverability in app stores has been key for new entrants such as Life360 that would otherwise have difficulty in reaching distribution agreements with operators.”
The big game changer in LBS is allegedly on the horizon. Facebook is rumored to be gearing up for the announcement of a location-tracking mobile app that would supply everything from updates about which of your friends are in your immediate area to location-based ads. Sources with inside knowledge of the app told Bloomberg News it could launch as early as mid-March.
Content providers like Telmap have a foot in both the application and operator subscription models, and with roots in the mobile navigation market, the company created a primary service differentiator by moving into local content. M8 (pronounced “mate”) is its local-search app and content aggregator for locations throughout Europe, and is available not only through operators O2 and Orange but as a consumer app. Recently, Telmap announced that users of M8 in the UK can now book hotel reservations through HRS, Europe’s leading hotel portal.
Layering services on top of a rich store of location-based content gives advertisers and content partners an incentive to work with companies like Telmap. It also gives the end user a complete experience, retail or otherwise.
“Partnering up with trusted, well-known content providers is part of Telmap’s long-term strategy of aiming to offer significant added value to our users,” said Tim Owen, UK country manager for Telmap. “In this vein we are excited to be collaborating with HRS in our M8 UK offering, essentially closing the ‘on-the-go’ hotel search loop by offering our users a first-class, location-based hotel search, booking and navigation experience.”
As NFC, mobile money, quality content, and real-time analytics come together, so does the promise of location-based services. And now that those components are realizing their individual potential, the entire mobile-service marketplace can follow. Once consumers get used to their phones knowing their precise location at all times, are comfortable using those same phones for financial transactions and understand that mobile content is both useful and valuable, the table will be set for a global smorgasbord of services ready to be devoured by the public.
