Thomas Seiler, u-blox CEO, holds a drone with GPS embedded.
Several companies at CTIA Super Mobility Week, held in Las Vegas September 9–11, are attempting to find niche opportunities in the crowded machine-to-machine market — and Switzerland-based u-blox is no exception. The company is focusing on the mobile, industrial and consumer-location markets, said Thomas Seiler, u-blox CEO.
While Seiler says there is no one dominant market for u-blox, the fleet market has been very good for the company. In addition, asset tracking has been a good market, he said.
“We are also seeing consumer markets such as e-bikes, golf carts, commercial helicopters and drones growing,” Seiler said.
While many location companies are fretting about government regulation, u-blox is taking the position that most agency requirements have actually helped build the market. “Regulatory requirements have been driving business for us. The [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] proposes that vehicles report location, speed and direction,” said Nikolaos Papadopoulos, u-blox America president. “The collision avoidance regulations have helped to create an ecosystem that drives business.”
The company recently rolled out its ODIN-W160 multi-radio module for automotive, industrial, medical and security applications.
Nick Papadopoulos, president of u-blox America, tells CTIA Super Mobility Week show-goers what they should see at the u-blox booth.
CTIA’s Super Mobility Week featured machine-to-machine technology, connected vehicle vendors, and a few location-based services companies. While combining its spring and fall conferences, which drew a big crowd, CTIA also tried to be everything to everyone in wireless. Meeting planners also placed the conference with conflicting dates — as the Institute of Navigation, Berlin IFA and ITS World Congress were held in the same week. One of my goals as a reporter was to make sense of a big trade show — and to limit the times an interviewee said “Internet of Things.”
LAS VEGAS — Outside of the announcement by GM and AT&T to expand OnStar to Europe, the CTIA Super Mobility Week here featured several connected car panels, but limited location news. The action seemed to be in company backroom meetings with existing clients — or trying to find additional niche opportunities for location products.
One company, Annapolis, Maryland-based TeleCommunication Systems, said it is proving its navigation product for the Atlanta-based AT&T Drive Studio. The company is involved in most location markets, now ranked No. 2 in terms of units deployed (second to Ericsson, according to one source), said Jay Whitehurst, TCS president, commercial software group.
TCS’ Location ToolKit, which will be used in the 5,000-square foot AT&T Drive Studio, offers navigation, with automatic map updates, traffic, real-time gas prices, weather, movies and showtimes.
Whitehurst said a market that is growing is e-health and mobile payments, which are both big topics at CTIA SMW and at the Barcelona Mobile World Congress. “We are developing a new product in conjunction with physicians to allow first responders to be able to reach patients who are not responsive. We are working the system into clinical workflows to provide diagnosis,” he said.
Standards, particularly for connected vehicles and handsets that control functions, will be important as new systems and vehicles offer this technology, said Alan Ewing, Car Connectivity Consortium president and executive director.
“Having a proprietary service is okay until someone says, ‘Hey, we don’t want to do this anymore,’ then there is a button in a car that does nothing,” he said. “We want to ensure that button is meaningful. While a lot of cars have MirrorLink built in, what happens when it disappears and consumers don’t know where to buy a compatible phone? [Consumers] don’t want three different phones for their vehicles.”
Ewing said that despite proponents’ arguments that autonomous vehicles are here to stay, he believes it is a generational issue. “I don’t want to give up control of a vehicle. But it is a surprise to hear younger people are not even getting driver’s licenses.”
Ford, which is not a MirrorLink member, had its inaugural developer’s conference at CTIA SMW. The developer’s conference was a big hit, with more than 200 application developers, said Douglas VanDagens, Ford global director, connected services solutions organization.
u-blox Rolls Out New Module, Outlines Marketing Strategy
Several companies at CTIA SMW are attempting to find niche opportunities in the crowded machine-to-machine market — and Switzerland-based u-blox is no exception. The company is focusing on the mobile, industrial and consumer-location markets, said Thomas Seiler, u-blox CEO.
While Seiler says there is no one dominant market for u-blox, the fleet market has been very good for the company. In addition, asset tracking has been a good market, he said.
“We are also seeing consumer markets such as e-bikes, golf carts, commercial helicopters and drones growing,” Seiler said.
While many location companies are fretting about government regulation, u-blox is taking the position that most agency requirements have actually helped build the market. “Regulatory requirements have been driving business for us. The [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] proposes that vehicles report location, speed and direction,” said Nikolaos Papadopoulos, u-blox America president. “The collision avoidance regulations have helped to create an ecosystem that drives business.”
The company recently rolled out its ODIN-W160 multi-radio module for automotive, industrial, medical and security applications.
Nick Papadopoulos, president of u-blox America, tells CTIA Super Mobility Week show-goers what they should see at the u-blox booth.
The recent $37.5 million purchase of offender-monitoring company Omnilink allowed Numerex to boost its presence in the tracking of prisoners, Alzheimer’s patients and children, said Kelly Gay, Numerex president, security solutions.
“Our strategic focus is on M2M solutions — the Omnilink purchase is a perfect fit. Both companies are based in Atlanta and we have a lot of products we are working on together,” she said. “It’s been a great four months [since the acquisition].”
Gay said Numerex is focusing on four markets, or “battlefields” for growth: solutions as a service; asset identification and tracking; supply chain delivery; and remote monitoring, which includes oil and gas, tank monitoring, water systems and tracking weather.
LBS Companies Few and Far at CTIA…
While there were only a handful of LBS companies at CTIA SMW, one company, Mexia Interactive, mapped the exhibit hall in the Sands Convention Center. The Winnipeg, Canada-based company is offering indoor location beacons — and has installations in four airports, with six more under contract.
“We set up 80 sensors in this area to capture data from mobile devices, every 10 seconds, to place the information on a heat map. With this heat map, retailers can see how many people are in a registration area, patterns of who is going to booths — and who is not,” said Glenn Tinley, Mexia president and CEO.
While Tinley says his company, which was founded in 2010, can work with both Apple and Android systems, he believes Apple is pushing Android out of the indoor market.
At airports, both security and airlines can see how long lines are with the technology to open up new lines and distribute personnel to meet the need, Tinley said. “We can instantly send a text alert to have a new check-in line established. Retailers can do the same thing at check out,” he said. “At retailers, [long lines] represent potentially billions in losses each year.”
Iridium Expanding M2M Market Demand
Iridium recently reduced the price of its short-burst data receivers by 50 percent to allow its OEMs and value-added resellers to offer a product that works worldwide in areas with no cellular coverage.
“The machine-to-machine market is one of our fastest growing [segments]. We see a combination of new services being developed,” said David Wigglesworth, Iridium vice president and general manager. “By the end of the year, we should have a push-to-talk service like the old Nextel phone.”
Big changes are coming to Iridium and its satellite constellation. The Iridium NEXT satellite network will consist of 66 in-orbit satellites and several in-orbit spares. The constellation is expected to begin launching in 2015 and will offer greater bandwidth and data speeds when fully operational in 2017.
“We are replacing the whole Iridium system. Space X is our launch partner — and they have been great,” Wigglesworth said. “The new constellation will allow new services. We see aviation as being a big market. The satellite industry has many niche markets.”
In other CTIA SMW news:
One of a handful of antenna companies exhibiting at SMW was Ireland-based Taoglas, which says there is growth in distributed antenna systems, said Dermot O’Shea, Taoglas president. “We are seeing a huge movement to LTE,” he said. One of Taoglas’ customers is Omnilink, which uses a custom GPS antenna in its offender-monitoring product.
Stockholm-based Birdstep is getting into the connected car market, based on its defense experience, with future data plans that turn off when a car is stationary. “Why should consumers pay for a data plan when a car is parked 90 percent of the time?” asked Lonnie Schilling, Birdstep CEO.
Spirent Communications launched its Elevate Test Framework for M2M devices and services. Because of the surge in smartphone and M2M devices, the new testing device allows evaluation and performance tests to enable faster development cycles, the company said.
Fleet Freedom rolled out a new mobile resource-management product that works with Android, iOS and Magellan’s RoadMate fleet units at SMW. “This unit is the fourth generation. It features dispatch integrated, while most of our competitors view this as a separate product,” said Andrew Singer, Fleet Freedom general manager.
A number of factors are holding the proximity marketing/indoor positioning markets back: standardization issues, consumer acceptance/privacy, retailer awareness and the technology itself. However, as one location executive put it, it may be the one way that retailers with brick and mortar stores can compete with Amazon and other online giants.
Indoor location and proximity marketing may be the way large and small brick and mortar stores can compete with online retailers in the future, said panelists at the New York Place conference, held July 22. But all of this indoor location market talk doesn’t mean much if consumers don’t find a need for it.
“I am in an aisle at a grocery store and you sent me a coupon for cat food, and I don’t have a cat, I am not going to be interested. The retailer gets to own the data by providing a great experience to the consumer, not the spontaneous ‘you are in a store — here’s some information,’” said John Dempsey, Datalogix head of mobile and video.
While having a broad picture of a consumer’s “mobile moment” is important, there is something to be said about bombarding a consumer with too many location-based applications, said Doug Kilponen, Wanderful Media chief operating officer. “There are a limited number of apps consumers are willing to have, but not 200 different ones. It’s one thing to have an app for say, Target, but trying to find out what is broadly available during shopping makes shopping too much work,” he said. “Trying to find out what’s available becomes too much work as there are too many options [for the consumer].”
From a retailer’s perspective, they want consumer’s data, and will share it with partners, but they also want control, said Catherine Lindner, Shelfbucks chief marketing and merchant officer, who was an executive at Walgreens. “If you think about your own shopping behavior, there is only a few places you actually go to and spend money — a grocer, drug store. That retailer wants your data, and it makes sense,” she said. “How do we spend the money to grow the business? The idea that there is one bucket of money to transfer is not going to happen.”
One company says that consumers don’t want to be “advertazed” by retailers. “Their job is to show you Calvin Klein, but sometimes there is not enough information or context. They hijack moments, rather than create them,” said Scott Townsend, Urban Airstrip director of agency programs.
Still, retailers are increasingly using indoor location as part of their mobile strategies. Jewelry chain Alex and Ani has three beacons in their Boston and New York stores, said Ryan Bonifacino, Alex and Ani vice president, digital strategy. “We really want to prove that this [indoor location] can really work. We really want to get in front of people who wouldn’t have discovered us,” he said.
Indoor Location Standardization? What Standardization?
Like any new technology and market, industry standardization will have growing pains, and a lot of the problem may be with the retailers, said panel members. “There are issues with standardization. If Walmart puts a [indoor positioning] in to its store — they don’t care if it works anywhere else,” said Don Dodge, Google developer advocate.
Indoor location is the classic chicken-before-the-egg situation, said Chris Goodall, Trusted Positioning founder and CEO. “There currently are no standards for indoor [positioning], maybe we need it. Databases are not standardized,” he said.
A lot of the reason that standardization has not be resolved is that no big application, the old killer app, has appeared. “Indoor is something that has not emerged yet, it’s a long tail story,” said Dan Ryan, ByteLight co-founder and CEO. “Every location company is trying to build a network — and naturally attract developers.”
Making Proximity and Indoor Location Relevant to Retailers
Some retail chains like Walgreens have used indoor positioning technology for years and are considered some of the major early adopters. However, making consumer-purchasing behavior data relevant to retailers is the only way for indoor marketing to take off.
The concept of geofencing each store has been tested in several locations. One company envisions an image of a celebrity greeting consumers in a store with an offer. “Walgreens focused on not invading people’s privacy. But they basically asked users, what’s important to them when they walk into a store,” said aisle411 founder and CEO Nathan Pettyjohn. “[Bluetooth Low Energy] beacons can do this very elegantly. When a consumer walks through a store, perhaps they see a celebrity popping out to greet them.”
In many successful mobile marketing campaigns, all have a common theme — proximity components always enhance sales, said James Smith, Verve chief revenue officer. “Every one of our studies says it drives sales. Sometimes we hear that geofences don’t work — my answer to that is they are in the wrong places,” he said. “A person can go into a place 15 days later and a beacon locks on them — the retailer is happy because it works. Consumers are more empowered because they have a research device in their hand to go where they want to go.”
Case Study: Walkbase
A Finland-based company is delivering market research to retailers that examines consumers’ in-store shopping behavior and loyalty patterns. Walkbase, which signed a deal with Helsinki airport operator Finavia, started in 2007 when it spun off from an indoor location company.
“It’s a retail tool that analyzes indoor performance of marketing campaigns and [sales] conversion. It measures when consumers come into a store — do they bounce out or are they engaged?” said Juha Mattsson, Walkbase vice president, sales and marketing. “A retailer can launch a campaign that is affected by a consumer’s indoor journey. Whether that is through coupons, or not, as some retailers don’t want that.”
Mattsson says that the company is operating primarily in Europe — and is waiting for what indoor technologies will win. “It is just a matter of time before the market takes off. Retailers are very interested in these types of consumer spending analytics,” he said. “We will be launching a U.S. white paper on in-store optimization as it’s all about education. We also are rolling out a version 2.0 of our product in the third quarter.”
In other LBS news:
According to published reports, Michael Halbherr, CEO of Nokia’s HERE mapping unit, will be stepping down. Halbherr, who is based in Berlin, steps down after eight years at the company. As recently as 2012, HERE, then called Navteq, had been losing money but had stabilized recently. Cliff Fox, HERE senior vice president, will be acting CEO until a replacement is found.
I will be covering CTIA’s Super Mobility Week in Las Vegas, Sept. 8-11. To arrange an interview with me for Wireless LBS Insider, or to submit press releases, contact me at [email protected].
Proximity and indoor positioning will grow as technology gets better — and consumers value its benefits. Attendees at the recent Place conference in New York had the opportunity to hear from companies who advocated Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and even magnetic positioning technology. In addition, several advertising agencies and retailers attended, showing that the nascent proximity/indoor location niche could be a major market in the next few years.
NEW YORK — The potential for indoor positioning and proximity marketing is huge if even a fraction of overall retail sales are attributed to the information the technology gives to retailers, said panel members at the July 22 Place conference here.
The indoor opportunity is huge as studies have shown that 70 percent to 89 percent of consumers use smartphones in stores to compare prices and shop for coupons, said Greg Sterling, Opus Research senior analyst. “About $20 to $50 billion of purchases were influenced at point-of-sale in stores. $500 billion of retail sales came without any premeditated product selections,” he said. “Even if a small fraction shifts to mobile devices, that’s an enormous amount of money.”
Sterling said that despite consumers’ ambivalence to privacy issues, if they are guaranteed some sort of benefits to being tracked, they will opt-in. “72 percent said they don’t want tracking [without benefits]. That number goes up to 66.4 percent who say ‘yes’ if there are specific benefits — rewards and discounts,” he said. “It is about educating consumers [as to benefits of location-based advertising].”
Technology improvements and retailer awareness in the last two years have made such mobile advertising agencies as Joule interesting in location as a data point beyond geofencing, said Michael Lieberman, company co-president.
“I am biased as we are mobile agency, so for us, most of our clients are using location to identify buyers. Ideally, we see a device in multiple locations, we understand consumers’ behavior,” Lieberman said. “If I see you every morning at a Starbucks, you are a coffee drinker and I should target you that way. However, if you are trying to use location as a national campaign you will only get a percentage of accuracy — you are missing out on other information.”
Right now, retailers have little idea how and why a consumer makes a purchase, Lieberman said. “The [important] point is in [indoor location’s] measurement — what happens in the store environment. You walk in store, make a purchase, right now we have no idea what they did to buy a product,” he said. “We are losing that piece — and it is a big gap in thinking. Everything about consumer path in that store determines a purchase. What’s valuable is the in-store data that gives you the most actionable information.”
Location today is used for targeting, but not for the total consumer measurement that Facebook requires, said Doug Stotland, Facebook product marketing director. “IKEA recently ran a campaign in a local radius, they wanted to see who showed up in their parking lot,” Stotland said. “It’s really compelling when you look at the methodology — you want to see if people actually showed up at the store. The home run is how to tie it to what they actually buy.”
Stotland said Facebook uses location information for targeting, but basically users tell the company where they live and that’s it. “We can do better than that — there is definitely a big opportunity there. The great thing about Facebook is that I am always logged in — there is no value for targeting if I am not.”
In a case study session at Place, Korean telecom provider SK Telecom has been making inroads in indoor positioning markets for several years, said John Kim, SK Telecom senior business development manager. “While we are the number one mobile operator in Korea, like other companies, we were hitting saturation levels,” Kim said. “We found that location-based services for telecos are a key service, basing this on earlier tracking, navigation and security markets.”
SK Telecom ran indoor positioning tests at Seoul National University Hospital, which has 1,360 beds, making it hard to find patients. Kim said younger indoor positioning users liked the service and found it easy to use. “We also found that it was difficult for active marketing — what does a hospital use to promote it? Two-for-one x-rays?” Kim said. “The service was also difficult for remote maintenance and support.
Kim said that SK Telecom is installing the product as a test in a Seoul sports stadium and at the L’Oreal Madrid flagship store. “We are also partnering with [Herndon, Va.-based] APX to work in their Google Glass product to provide location information.”
Overall, the upside of indoor location is huge, said Don Dodge, Google developer advocate. “Imagine if you can look at phone to know exactly what stores your family members are in at the mall. At CES, you have no idea where 15 to 20 of your friends are,” he said. “If my wife gives me a list of groceries, I can find them in certain areas and know what price they are. First responders, fire departments, can find their way around in a burning building — and find a safe way out.”
Privacy: The Attack on Opt-In
In a privacy panel, members put a dark cloud over the ubiquitous answer by many companies that consumer opt-in alleviates all concerns for the location industry.
Amanda Koulousias, a Federal Trade Commission attorney, said Section Five of the FTC Act, which has been expanded to cover tracking users over a certain time, prohibits deceptive practices that are likely to mislead people acting reasonably.
Privacy seems to be a hot topic for reporters. Kate Kaye, a panel member who is a reporter with Advertising Age, said that security issues around beacons and leakages is a story. She also said that the Associated Press recently ran a story critical of the new Verizon rewards program. “The story typifies the balance a lot of marketers are trying to straddle — how much information can we gather, and how do we not [anger] consumers. Verizon Wireless prompts you to join their loyalty rewards program, but you have to opt-in to their location data program,” she said.
Privacy panel moderator Jules Polonetsky, Future of Privacy Forum executive director, said a way some companies get consumers to opt in to being tracked is just to say “download this app.”
The location industry’s privacy issues are not going away — and the path for resolution isn’t clear, said Greg Turetsky, principal engineer in Intel’s wireless communications group. “The privacy issue is so complex legally, economically and socially, that I expect it will not be resolved any time soon,” he said.
In other Place conference news:
Opus Research, the organizer of the conference, published a report on magnetic positioning, which has a unique footprint. The company contends that magnetic positioning, which can be complimented by other technologies, offers six-foot accuracy with 90 percent precision. In comparison, Bluetooth offers proximity, but not the blue dot solution magnetic positioning currently has. In addition, Opus believes that Wi-Fi positioning, which has 40-foot accuracy, needs too much support and is expensive.
Half the year is over. It’s gone. Now it’s time to figure out where the location industry is going for the remainder of the year. One analyst (actually, several) believe that the industry, fueled by indoor location and place-based advertising, is around $14 billion right now — with no place to go but up — given some bump in consumer awareness. In other news in a busy month, Google bought Skybox Imaging for $500 million in cash.
As the mid-point of 2014 arrives, with a few big location industry deals already consummated, there is a chance for industry executives to study what is going to be a strong niche market in the months ahead.
One analyst believes a big location niche is indoor analytics and proximity marketing, which is defined as nearby a store or within a business. “The latter would include ads and coupons. We’ve estimated that roughly $3.5 billion of potentially $14 billion, or so, in 2014 U.S. mobile ad revenue, will be location-based [broadly defined],” said Greg Sterling, founder of Sterling Market Research. “Of that, about $1.4 billion will be ‘geofenced’ or nearby.”
Sterling believes that the in-store component is still in an embryonic stage. “There are billions of dollars of coupons distributed every year, but most of that is still print. Some of that is in-store distribution and redemption,” he said. “A portion of that over time will migrate to mobile in or near stores.”
Sterling said there are billions of dollars available from proximity marketing, but it will take time. He cites “Mapping the Indoor Marketing Opportunity,” a report he authored for Opus Research, that says the market for indoor location and place-based marketing/advertising will surpass $10 billion by 2018. (See a preview of the report here.)
In a published report, Sterling admitted that he was nervous about the $10 billion number, but it may turn out that the figure could be conservative because of the software licensing from indoor markets.
Sterling says that while indoor positioning has been important to the older location business, it is still in its early stages. The big deal is mobile, which has brought new attention and interest to location, he said. “Indoor location will feed mobile and online marketing with data and analytics as well as targeting opportunities,” he said.
Many executives and analysts in the location industry have marginalized privacy issues; some even say it is dead with opt-in approval by consumers. However, privacy issues will continue to hamper the location industry, Sterling said.
“Privacy is far from dead. Indeed, it’s on the rise, and a major issue that everyone in the location and mobile segments needs to tackle head on,” Sterling said. “Denial, delay and obfuscation will result in regulatory intervention and/or consumer fear/rejection.”
In a blog, Sterling said that the San Francisco-based Philz Coffee chain no longer will be tracking customers after a local ABC affiliate revealed they were using Euclid retail analytics. Sterling said the ABC report acted as if it had uncovered a big government or corporate conspiracy.
Sterling will be giving the keynote address at the Place Conference in New York on July 22 at the W Hotel. Topics include proximity marketing, indoor positioning markets, privacy and other location topics.
Google Continues Location Industry Dominance with Acquisition
Google enhanced its online mapping service by acquiring Mountain View, California-based Skybox Imaging for $500 million in cash. Sources say both Google and Facebook are purchasing satellite and drone companies in an attempt to expand into other market areas.
One of the ways Google will be leveraging Skybox is in disaster relief and to improve Internet access in remote areas, something the company has been strongly pursuing.
On its website, the five-year-old Skybox said that it plans also to share in the development of the burgeoning autonomous vehicle market and continue to design its own satellites.
A Skybox satellite image of Tampa, Florida.
AT&T Expands Location Information Services
AT&T’s new Location Information Services, which includes a security function and LBS, is expanding into more than 150 countries this summer in a pilot project. The Location Information Services are enabled through an API that can notify companies when their customers, who opt-in for the service, arrive in a new country.
Some application examples, provided by AT&T, include credit card companies confirming customers have traveled to a new country as soon as a device is turned on; allowing the credit card company to either decline or approve purchases overseas; companies using the service to track the movement of equipment to prevent stolen property; and the ability for hospitality entities to offer restaurant and other suggestions to consumers based on their location.
In other LBS news:
The new Amazon Fire Phone has GPS and location functions plus a new feature, Dynamic Perspective, which can be used for such built-in apps as maps and games. The phone is available on July 25, but Amazon is taking pre-orders. In the meantime, competitor Apple has a new iOS 8 feature that allows shoppers to enter their payment details on an m-commerce site by scanning their credit card with the camera on their mobile device, according to published reports. The operating system will use sensors to provide apps with indoor positioning data.
HERE acquired the mobile predictive analytics firm, Seattle-based Medio, earlier this month. The company plans to integrate Medio’s predictive analytics, in conjunction with its map platform, to customize LBS “prediction experiences” for consumers, according to published reports. These experiences (full disclosure, I hate it when companies use the word, “experience”) may include delivering restaurant or other information at a relevant time, such as around lunch. While no financial details were released, the deal is expected to close at the end of July.
Hundreds of businesses in Brixton, near London, will be integrating Apple’s iBeacon as part of the first networks for mobile payments, according to published reports. Businesses in Brixton are switching from currency payments to mobile payments by text. Previously, iBeacons have been used for proximity offers, advertisements and product information when a user is in a retail area. The mobile payment application allows users to quickly check out, reports say.
Not everyone is talking up the accuracy of indoor positioning. Arlington, Virginia-based Telecommunications Industry Association says the technology, which is seen as the one way location-based services providers will be able to capture consumer interest, is not ready. In other LBS news, AT&T has come out with data pricing for its connected vehicle initiatives.
In a recent FCC filing, the Telecommunications Industry Association said that indoor positioning technology is not sufficiently developed to support ongoing wireless E-911 location accuracy requirements.
While TIA supports the FCC’s goal to improve location accuracy, “Imposing location accuracy mandates at this time would be premature, given the nascent stage of the technology that will be needed to accomplish the Commission’s objectives, and should neither favor nor disfavor specific technologies,” said the association in its filing.
The NPRM proposes a requirement to achieve “rough” indoor location information, TIA said. It proposes to require providers to provide horizontal information for wireless 911 calls that originate indoors, specifically a caller’s location within 50 meters.
TIA also disagrees with an FCC proposal to require mobile operators to provide z-axis, which is vertical location within 3 meters of a caller’s location, for 67 percent and 80 percent of indoor wireless 911 calls — ranging from three to five years after adoption. Again, TIA says that the technology is not fully developed.
TIA quoted AT&T’s filing: “[The] time [is] right to begin discussing Indoor Location Accuracy for E-911” but the “FCC should be careful to ensure that any proposed rules on location accuracy are aligned with proven capabilities of the current state of technology and they should set realistic accuracy benchmarks that the industry and public safety can embrace.”
The location industry has been counting on indoor positioning, with its beacons and Wi-Fi enhancements, to jump-start a location-based services market that always seems to have tremendous potential, but the numbers don’t back it up. Some big-time analysts have said that while the promise of indoor positioning is huge, it just isn’t there technically yet.
In fact, one analyst said that the biggest technological breakthrough last year was indoor mapping. Such major retailers as Home Depot and Lowes launched indoor maps with product search locators. These same analysts say that indoor Wi-Fi positioning is not accurate enough for macro location.
The big deal coming up is how FCC positioning accuracy regulations will affect beacons or Bluetooth low energy for micro location and proximity services.
TIA said it supports initial FCC location accuracy requirements back to 2007. However, don’t ask TIA for more location regulation. “To date, the development of 911 and E911 location accuracy technologies and applications has been fostered by a voluntary and consensus-based standards process. This process has proven quite successful to date, and the Commission should refrain from imposing regulations that could slow additional development,” the association said.
AT&T Announces Connected Car Pricing
AT&T Mobility said standalone pricing for new LTE-enabled OnStar service will be $5 or $10 per month, depending on whether the driver is an OnStar subscriber. The company said it will allow customers, with a GM LTE-capable vehicle, to add the car as another device for $10 — which is the same price as a tablet.
OnStar subscribers will get coverage ranging from $5 for 200 MB of data per month to $50 for 5 GB. GM is also allowing customers to buy one-time data packages.
At this year’s CES, General Motors announced its first LTE-enabled vehicles — in which AT&T Mobility is powering the LTE network for GM’s OnStar service. The first LTE-enabled vehicles, which will be available this summer, are Impala, Spark, Volt, Orlando, Spark RV, Silverado, Silverado HD, Malibu, Equinox and Corvette Stingray. GM plans to have 30 Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles LTE-equipped by the end of the year.
AT&T also made recent deals to provide connectivity for Ericsson Connected Vehicle Cloud which connects to the AT&T Drive platform for automakers.
CEA Hosts CES on the Hill
Members of Congress and their staff had the opportunity to observe location technology during the Consumer Electronics Association’s recent CES on the Hill event in Washington. Exhibiting companies include Origo Safe, distracted driving; AT&T Drive; DashIt; Qualcomm, which showed off a geofencing product around schools; and RideScout.
Washington-based Ridescout is a cool, and free, mobile app that allows a user to find the nearest subway, bus, taxi, bikeshare, sedan service, carshare, pedi-cab or carpool. A user can choose from a list of options by proximity, cost or arrival time.
“We launched in November in Washington, D.C. We are in Austin, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago and planning several new markets,” said Steve Carroll, Ridescout vice president of operations.
The app, which is on the iOS and Android platforms, generates revenue by sharing with the ride providers, large organizations and universities and the public transport network, Carroll said.
Some of Ridescout’s partners include Mozio, RidePost, Metro of Washington, Bandwagon, Sidecar, Car2Go, Arlington Transit, Capital Bikeshare, Yellow Cab, DC Circulator and Dash.
RideScout, founded by two Army veterans, was hatched when founder and CEO Joseph Kopser wanted an application to show him the best way to get to work in the Washington area. He could not find one and started the company with Craig Cummings. The company initially launched an alpha product at South by Southwest in 2013.
Though it was the first to combine all modes of transportation in a single application, the company has some competition. Of course this competition is from the 800-pound location gorilla, Google.
Google, with its Google Maps platform, shows the directions to the nearest transportation mode. Now it is incorporating Uber, which is an on-demand transportation provider.
This is not the first time Google has launched a product in an effort to dominate a market place or niche. When it launched Google Maps in 2009, it put the hurt on many companies in the location industry, which underwent a three-year period of consolidation, company closings and layoffs.
Facebook Nearby Friends feature helps people get together.
While Facebook has made big news buying companies for billions of dollars, it hasn’t been making many location-based services headlines. The recent announcement that it is rolling out a friend finder is interesting news, not only for social applications, but the potential indoor positioning markets. The news is also interesting because as many as half of Facebook users access the social media network through mobile devices.
Signaling that it does have a location strategy, as GPS World reported earlier this week, Facebook announced that it was launching an LBS offering called Nearby Friends. The opt-in service allows users to find out what friends are nearby or mobile.
Nearby Friends will be available on Android and iPhones in the U.S. market this month. In Facebook’s press announcement, apparently privacy is a big issue as the company insists it is an opt-in function.
Once users agree to use the service, they will be notified when friends are in close proximity. Users can select the friends who can see their location — and can turn the service on or off at any time.
At first glance, Nearby Friends could be a valuable tool for users looking to find friends and make plans, but the real potential could be for retailers who wish to drive in-store traffic. Users can not only invite friends to a specific business on a map, but tag other traffic.
The area or business to where the friends are traveling will be displayed on their profile. This allows the friends who opt in to recommend shops, restaurants and other things to do in the specified area.
How retailers get their message out to Nearby Friends users remains to be seen. Research company Berg Insight still says advertising will constitute the main revenues for social networking and local search market segments. However, in several published reports, users have tired of the increased Facebook advertisements.
Berg says that social networking and entertainment has now overtaken mapping and navigation as the largest location market. The company says that those services include general social networking, messaging apps, friend finders such as Nearby Friends, and games.
While Facebook could use the Location History in Nearby Friends to make money selling ads, the company says it isn’t right now. But it has to be the future — and one that, privacy issues aside, could be very lucrative for the company. It could target opt-in users with ads that are only a few feet away or in the area they will meet friends.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook will leverage its user base, estimated at one billion users, to improve ad targeting, expand marketing reach, and to make more money. The company earned $1.24 billion in revenue through mobile ads for the last three months of 2013, according to published reports.
After the announcement that Facebook was launching Nearby Friends, a number of tech business articles sprung up about potential, real and imagined, privacy issues. With the predictable privacy issues comes opportunities for location startups. A new location app is touting itself as the “anti-social networking” tool. Called Cloak, and available in Apple’s App Store, it allows a user to avoid friends they want to avoid by revealing the location of contacts — while keeping the user’s position hidden.
The app, which already has been downloaded more than 100,000 times, uses Instagram and Foursquare data, and published reports say Facebook compatibility is coming soon.
Rumors about Acquisition Prove False?
Earlier this month, several tech business industry publications wrote that Israel-based indoor navigation startup ShopCloud was in talks with Samsung to sell the company for as much as $90 million. Samsung has denied the rumors.
In articles like these, red flags always include terms like “several sources familiar with the details”. The price seemed high for a young company that hasn’t launched a product, though according to published reports, it has an app called Inside.
One analyst says that the Israel tech business media frequently pumps up local companies and even creates buzz for startups — and often these reports are picked up by local journalists.
Autonomous Vehicles Will Happen, but When?
In January’s Transportation Research Board (TRB) meeting in Washington, D.C., attendees agreed that self-driving vehicles are the future. The bottom line is when is the future? “We have seen the business case for autonomous vehicles — it will be a reality. When you look at the number of lives it will save, efficiency of the network, it is very compelling,” said Kevin Link, Verizon senior vice president and general manager, China. “We have to begin a slow migration of educating consumers — one of those ways is through the connected vehicle. I don’t think consumers are there yet.”
Link talked about autonomous vehicles at the Consumer Telematics Conference, also in January, but those at TRB are mainly academics and government officials, not business executives. Most believe it will take decades, Google car aside, to have a fully autonomous vehicle on the road. Others believe that if Detroit does not take notice, they can read about Google dominating this vehicle market, not being a player in it.
In other location news:
Place, the Business of Location conference will be July 22 in New York. Executives from SK Telecom, Thinknear, Sonic Notify, Aisle411, and Factual will join Google, retailer Alex and Ani, and agency MEC North America (WPP), among others. The conference will include case studies and explore how mobile, offline tracking and indoor location will change the future of digital marketing and brand advertising. Many location conferences have died in the last two years, so it is refreshing to see a conference with a strong agenda back on the scene.
Finland-based IndoorAtlas rolled out an indoor mapping application for iOS. While iOS supports Apple’s iBeacon micro-fencing solution for indoor positioning, IndoorAtlas uses the compass chip built into smartphones and does not require external hardware such as Bluetooth beacons or Wi-Fi to determine location, the company said.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded Apple a patent that could drive technology on the next generation iPhones. The patent describes a system that combines GPS, Wi-Fi access points, and on-board location databases to provide mobile devices positioning data in all types of environments, particularly indoor location.
Facebook Nearby Friends feature helps people get together.
Facebook has started rolling out a feature called Nearby Friends. Users can turn on the feature to help them discover which friends are nearby or on the go. When notified that a friend is nearby, the user can then get in touch or meet up.
“For example, when you’re headed to the movies, Nearby Friends will let you know if friends are nearby so you can see the movie together or meet up afterward,” wrote Andrea Vaccari, Facebook Product Manager, in an article on the website.
Nearby Friends is an optional feature. Users can choose who can see whether they are nearby (such as friends, close friends, or a specific friends list) and it can turned on and off at any time. Both the user and the friend needs to have the feature turned on and choose to share that information before notifications are sent.
Users can also choose to share a precise location with particular friends for a set period of time, such as the next hour. The friend will see exactly the user’s location on a map, to help them meet up.
Nearby Friends will be available on Android and iPhone in the U.S. over the coming weeks.
When one talks about the worldwide location industry, mobile resource management — fleets and trucks, for instance — aren’t sexy at all, but they make money. What is supposed to be sexy is location-based advertising. According to many analysts, location-based advertising has been hampered by a few things: education for both consumers and mobile advertisers, privacy issues, and relevant proximity information so folks can use it to make purchases. Another concern could be the expense of rolling out indoor beacons.
BARCELONA—Major consumer privacy concerns aside, companies are starting to see growth in location-based advertising, with new markets emerging in Europe. While the numbers of mobile advertising companies has decreased at the Mobile World Congress, held here in February, from just two years ago, the remaining players are seeing a more mature market.
Mobile advertisers are beginning to realize that location is the Holy Grail for growth, said Cameron Peeples, Airpush vice president of marketing. “People going into New York from Newark during rush hour can receive a different call to action because of a created geo-fence. Advertisers can determine whether the traveler is there on business or looking for a hotel and other travel deals,” he said.
Before Mobile World Congress, Los Angeles-based Airpush partnered with AirX, a large mobile ad exchange company. The majority of the AirX inventory, about 120,000 Android applications, includes highly-sought-after GPS location data, the company said.
There are large differences between the North American and European markets for mobile advertising, Peeples said. “The mobile advertising market [in Europe] is definitely evolving. The European market is key for us, dramatically higher than other markets,” he said. “[The European] market seems to have people connected to a lot of things — they are more mobile, use public transportation more, and always have a phone that is more centric to who they are.”
Making location-based advertising relevant to the consumer is still a major challenge. “Our focus next year is on native advertising. Native advertising combines not only the right message, but the right delivery vehicle,” Peeples said. “No one bicycling enthusiast wants ads tailored for someone who wants flowers.”
Peeples said the privacy issues are a big deal, but his company’s services are opt-in. “A lot of it is loyalty advertising. It’s all opt-in,” he said.
xAd Partners with Waze, Sees UK Growth
Another mobile advertising company, New York-based xAd, is also making inroads in Europe. “We are in the UK right now, which is really WiFi-focused. A lot of our early [location-based] advertising efforts are in education — to educate consumers and the advertising agencies about the power of location and mobile,” said Monica Ho, xAd vice president of marketing. “Not all location is created equal. The real value of [location-based advertising] is the proximity target to market to.”
Right before Mobile World Congress, Waze selected xAd as its third-party provider of search and display mobile ads in the United States. Waze, which was bought by Google in a deal worth more than $1 billion, is a top three map and navigation app in the iTunes store — a ranking that was probably helped by the Apple Maps debacle in 2012.
The companies say the deal will place xAd’s mobile ad targeting technologies into Waze’s location-based advertising platform.
Ho said there are still two areas of concern for location-based advertising: relevancy to the consumer and privacy issues. “There was privacy backlash from Nordstrom collecting consumer information from their Wi-Fi system,” she said, referring to the controversy last year when the retailer was accused of capturing consumer information during an indoor positioning test.
Apple to Roll out Upgraded Maps on iPhone 6
Speaking about Apple Maps, many industry analysts says the company has come a long way since the very public embarrassment nearly two years ago over map inaccuracies and flaws. The company recently released iOS 7.1, but is expected to rollout iOS 8 when the iPhone 6 debuts later this year.
With the debut of the iPhone 6, an updated version of Apple Maps will also be released, according to published reports.
Last year, Apple bought two companies, HopStop and Locationary, to allow the company to entrench itself once more in the location business. How firmly those roots prove to be, and how well they serve the company against archrival Google, remain to be seen.
Apple has been stockpiling companies and mapping software since its introduction of Apple Maps on iOS devices, which had a rough start. GPS World’s LBS Insiderreported extensively on the problems Apple encountered with its mapping software. Some of these problems included sending drivers to a wrong location and direction.
After the mapping software problems were made public, Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized for the mapping software’s problems and even suggested that users go to such competitors as Waze, MapQuest, and Microsoft’s Bing.
In other location news:
A Wall Street Journal reporter basically said there was nothing much new at Mobile World Congress — and that the excitement and action was at the outlying conferences at Fira Montjuic. One of these more interesting conferences, Four Years From Now, or 4YFN, featured start-up companies making pitches and displaying their new products, some of which included location capability.
The Mobile World Congress final stats. Organizers said MWC had more than 85,000 attendees from 200 countries — an increase of 13,000 from the previous year. It’s now being touted as the biggest and best wireless show.
In February, GPS World reported that TruePosition had purchased Skyhook for an undisclosed price. Skyhook provided location services to a number of companies including Apple and Samsung. The interesting issue is Skyhook’s lawsuit with Google, which alleged that the Internet giant influenced smartphone manufacturers to abandon the Boston-based company. According to published reports, the legal action still is going forward.
AT&T Mobility is shuttering its location-based Alerts marketing program. The company said it would release an updated version later this year. AT&T Mobility launched Alerts in late 2012. It featured free opt-in, location-based text message alert service. Participating retailers included Stapes, Gap, Zales, Neiman Marcus, and others.
I didn’t go to South by Southwest. Is my cool-guy card revoked? One of the reasons I didn’t is because, outside of meetings that were not part of the conference, there was not one location industry announcement made there. Maybe something will change my mind next year, but call me an old fogey — I just didn’t see the need to go to Austin this year.
The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona has turned into a mini Consumer Electronics Show. The term “Internet of Things” is the new hot buzz word this year. The show had an estimated 75,000 attendees spread across two sites and eight football-field-sized exhibit halls. While the connected car continued to have high visibility, other technology such as location-enabled advertising and indoor positioning received buzz.
BARCELONA — Fueled by connected car popularity, automakers and vendors converged on the Mobile World Congress here to assess the market in a continent that has not fared well economically. Some say the European market for location products is slower than that of North America — others say it is doing fine.
In this climate, a few automobile analysts have indicated they were worried that a large player such as Google or Apple will swoop in and take control of the connected car market — and tell automakers what to put in a vehicle. Last month, Google even formed its own group, the Open Automobile Alliance, with GM, Honda, Audi, Hyundai and chipmaker Nvidia.
Jorg Brakensiek, Car Connectivity Consortium chair of technical work group and Nokia principal architect, smart devices, doesn’t believe that Google will tell automakers what to do when it comes to connected vehicles. “Android is a consumer electronic device. Completely different than what we do,” he said. “Certainly, there are complimentary applications. We are not dominated by a single partner.”
At MWC, the Car Connectivity Consortium, or CCC, rolled out MirrorLink Developer Fast Track to allow developers to gain MirrorLink certification, an industry standard for car-smartphone interoperability, for their connected car applications. “We believe in standardization of the technology. But also do not put restrictions on business models and feel we allow a very open ecosystem [for members],” Brakensiek said.
Several industry analysts have said that the connected car market will eventually drive the autonomous vehicle movement, also championed by Google. Brakensiek said people still have to make the decisions — driverless cars initially will not be fully autonomous. “People have to make the judgment whether to hit the kid, or drive into a car next to them. Will that decision be made entirely by a car? I hope not,” he said.
CCC said that Coyote, Glympse and Parkopedia are the first developers admitted to the program. CCC said developers will have access to technical support, social media and press inclusion, promotion of the application among members and other benefits.
At an MWC developer’s conference, CCC said that Peugeot Citroen will roll out two MirrorLink-enabled vehicles, the C1 and 108, at the Geneva International Motor Show.
One company, Cincinnati-based RacoWireless, has been working with a number of overseas wireless carriers as well as automakers to power connected vehicles. The company recently signed a deal with AT&T Mobility to connect the Audi A3 line to LTE. As GPS World reported, AT&T had announced its LTE commitment to Audi at CES.
“We want to have our customers get the connectivity they need. We have signed dozens of carriers [worldwide], but now we are looking at more strategic partnerships,” said John Horn, RacoWireless president, who also says the Latin America is a growing market, working with its carrier partner, Telefonica, there.
At MWC, RacoWireless said it would integrate Inmarsat’s M2M service into its Omega Management Suite. The OMS is a cloud-based dashboard that helps to enable RacoWireless’ network of more than 1,000 providers. The deal could be significant as satellite connectivity services, required in remote areas, are growing in the M2M market.
Magellan Boss Outlines Strategic Vision
One of the companies trying to establish deep roots in the connected vehicle market is Magellan. Peggy Fong, Magellan president, said the company’s strategic focus is now in two areas: Wearables and connected vehicles.
“We have set a clear direction for the company in next few years. Our focus will be the cloud connected car, which is not traditional navigation,” she said. “Our other focus will be wearables. We saw that market coming when we identified that [portable navigation device] sales were declining five years ago.”
Magellan’s first foray into the wearable/smartwatch market wasn’t a success. The new product, Echo, was launched at CES, works with a smartphone. “The first product built a foundation. We are focusing on the sports watch market, which is different than the fitness market,” Fong said.
In addition to Magellan’s rollout, Garmin teamed up with Sony at MWC to offer navigation on a smartwatch. The app has speed warnings, traffic tracking, social media capability. The unit, launching later this spring, has a monthly service charge.
Fong believes that navigation on a watch won’t catch on because consumers are already carrying a smartphone with that capability. “We don’t believe navigation is the best use for a watch,” said Fong, who indicated that the company was working on other applications for its own wearable product.
Garmin also is offered its Navigon, Streetpilot navigation units for iPhones, iPad, Android and Windows phones at MWC. Its Head-Up Display Plus was getting a lot of buzz at the Showstoppers event the day before the conference.
Established Location Companies Exhibit at MWC
Telecommunication Systems’ two location entities — one based in California and the other in Washington state — displayed location-based services and navigation systems at MWC.
TCS rolled out its DopplerNav embedded weather overlays at the show. The company is also trying to establish a foothold with European wireless carriers with its Gokivo 2.0 location-based technologies for both Android and iPhone smartphones.
“Users can see real-time weather and be able to adjust routes around it. The released version of the product is scheduled for April, but we are rolling it out in Europe,” said Michael Loo, TCS senior marketing manager, of the new DopplerNav unit.
The company’s Seattle unit, which was made up of former Autodesk employees, is seeing inroads in Latin American markets. Europe, however, has been a tough nut to crack as carriers haven’t signed up for its white label locater product.
“Our Family Locater and Workforce Locator products are doing well in Latin America. We are trying to gain a foothold here in Europe,” said Javier Ferraez, TCS senior product manager, location applications.
Overall, TCS was one of the companies that had been hurt by Google’s free maps and navigation, but is now seeing growth in niche LBS and navigation areas.
Also at MWC, Nokia’s Here unit had a few product announcements such as a mapping product with CNN; Here maps and turn-by-turn navigation integration into the parent company’s first Android-based phone, Nokia X (which doesn’t incorporate Google maps and navigation); Here Auto Cloud that powers Volvo navigation; and even location-based games.
Where’s Indoor Positioning?
Some of the usual industry players had displays on indoor positioning, but there were no big announcements. Such companies as SK Telecom displayed beacons with centimeter-level accuracy that leverage Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and UWB technology.
“We have indoor and outdoor beacons. The outdoor beacons can last three years without a battery change,” said John Kwon, Idolink CEO, who was displaying a system that is not on the market to assess European carriers’ interest.
SK Telecom displayed its augmented reality platform, also not yet on the market, which allows users to point a camera at an object, have it identified, mapped/located and described. The company says it will allow the development of many business-to-business and business-to-consumer augmented reality services and content by third-party developers. This may open the door to several markets such as advertising agencies, education and publishing companies.
In other Mobile World Congress news:
ALK Technologies showed off its free CoPilot GPS app, which has turn-by-turn navigation. The app has a new feature called CommuteMe, which learns a driver’s daily commute routing, tracking streets and freeways they frequently use. ALK was another company that focused on enterprise markets, particularly when Google invaded the market with free maps and navigation.
Is the Mobile World Congress outgrowing Barcelona? Seems as if it is almost as hard to get a hotel room, flight and other travel as it is to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. One attendee said he found great lodging near the conference, but obtained it in October. Others in the industry believed that the enormous trade show is getting too expensive — and too far away — to realistically attend and market products and services.
There were many more meeting rooms this year than at previous MWCs. Many companies are opting in on these private venues to talk with customers and potential customers.
Mark Zuckerberg came out in his trademark short sleeved T-shirt and jeans. He promoted Internet.org, an effort to get the web into underdeveloped countries. Of course, he was talking to a room of wireless executives and others who would have to build/pay for that capability. He also said he was done acquiring companies for now — does that mean there will be no $19 billion Whatsapp pay day for a location company?
It’s a daunting task — trying to find the big location story in a maze of 150,000 attendees and thousands of exhibitors at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Aside from every automaker touting their connected vehicle efforts, the big deal this year at CES is wearable technology (last year it was 3D printing? Yawn). Despite sore feet from walking football-field lengths of booths, CES is still a cool show, blaring stereos, walls of TV screens, robots…and connected cars.
LAS VEGAS — Although the largest number of worldwide auto manufacturers attended this year’s International CES here, many industry experts believe that technology giants Google and Apple will swoop in and grab not only the market, but will control what will go into the connected automobile in the future.
“Leading IT, consumer electronics and Internet companies will marginalize specialist vendors. I’m worried that Internet companies will take over the [connected car] market — away from the auto manufacturers,” said Thilo Koslowski, Gartner vice president at the Consumer Telematics Show, held the day before CES
Koslowski’s fears have been partially validated as Google launched a partnership, called the Open Automotive Alliance, with automakers to bring the Android operating system into cars. The Google move comes after a similar announcement by Apple, which was launched to get its iOS platform into connected cars.
Initial Open Automotive Alliance members include Audi, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai and Nvidia. Apple, in its group, has Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Ferrari, Nissan, Chevrolet, Infinity, Kia, Hyundai, Opel and Acura.
“We think [Google] is a strong content partner — the deal gives [you] perspective on where we as a company are heading. Same on the Apple side,” said Charles Koch, Honda manager, new business development, at the Consumer Telematics Show.
Despite standing room-only crowds at CES during most of the connected and automated car session, Koslowski said companies need to keep the right focus on the future. “[Connected vehicles] still are not a definite market, but we will see if it is in the next 3-4 years,” he said. “HMI and user interface will be biggest differentiators. Personalization will be important, but it will also be an expected feature.”
Koslowski said the Holy Grail for connected vehicles in the future is the transition to autonomous capability. “It’s progressing very quickly. Automakers have to avoid the gold rush mentality as it may not be the treasure trove,” he said. “They have to meet expectations [about the the technology] and avoid the creepiness factor that you know too much about the consumer.”
Regardless of the future, Koslowski believes the connected vehicle is a disruptive opportunity. “I can see carriers offering a car for free in exchange for lifetime data. Less dramatic would be with an eight-year data plan,” he said. “This would probably be a smaller, less expensive vehicle than a Ferrari or Audi.”
Overall, the telematics market has gone through several market changes in the past 10 years, said Kevin Link, senior vice president and general manager, China, for Verizon Telematics. Link said that Telematics 1.0 included door unlock, navigation, automatic collision notification, call centers and navigation. “It all began with GM and Mercedes becoming springboards for the industry. Initially, there was low consumer awareness; now, it is something like 88 percent in the United States,” he said.
Outside the U.S., however, the consumer awareness for telematics drops into the single digits. “The business model, especially in the U.S., is a burden on the consumer. In China, it’s a business-to-business play, which is not a burden on the consumer, which also explains the high usage rate,” Link said.
At CES, a record nine automakers attended and exhibited: Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes and Toyota.
AT&T Mobility Makes Big Announcements at CES
In a pre-CES press conference, General Motors announced its first LTE-enabled vehicles — in which AT&T Mobility is powering the LTE network for GM’s OnStar service. The first LTE-enabled vehicles, which will be available this summer, are Impala, Spark, Volt, Orlando, Spark RV, Silverado, Silverado HD, Malibu, Equinox and Corvette Stingray.
AT&T also announced it will provide connectivity for Ericsson Connected Vehicle Cloud which connects to the AT&T Drive platform for automakers
“We expect about 50 million cars to be connected by 2020. The car will be another device in your life,” said Glenn Lurie, AT&T president, emerging enterprises and partnerships. “LTE in a car will get another set of application developers involved — how will they differentiate the car? It’s a global opportunity.”
Magellan and Navigation Solutions’ Nav System Features Proximity Capability
Navigation Solutions, owned by Hertz, said it is working with Magellan to offer the NeverLost 6 navigation device that features connected services — many of which offer a consumer choices based on businesses and attractions near their current location.
A number of new systems, including Magellan’s new models and Pioneer’s five NEX models, which consist of four navigation and an A/V receiver, feature connected services that allow access to navigation — even when the phone isn’t connected to a data source. This has been a sore subject for users of the free Google Maps on a phone — no Internet, no navigation.
Magellan also announced a new line of RoadMate Personal Navigation Device (PND) units featuring Easy Touch screens and an underlying Android OS to improve navigation capabilities and features.
In other CES news:
Broadcom continues to make strides in indoor and Wi-Fi position with several new product rollouts. The company also is rolling out its BCM47531 GNSS chip that can grab signals from five satellite constellations at the same time (GPS, GLONASS, QZSS, SBAS and BeiDou), said Mohamed Awad, Broadcom director, product marketing.
Alpine rolled out the aftermarket’s first 9-inch navigation system, which will cost $2,600 and be available in June. The company is targeting used trucks and other vehicles as they are staying on the road longer, said Melvin Diaz, Alpine product planning manager.
In its press conference at CES, Kenwood said its navigation units are selling well. Its flagship, a $1,500, 7-inch system, features INRIX traffic and Garmin navigation.
In the LBS Insider February blog, several industry experts will be interviewed about the future of the autonomous vehicle.
2013 was an up-and-down roller coaster of a year for the location industry…and 2014 appears to be more of the same. What was the big story? Google buying Waze? While it is easy to predict what will happen, the harder thing to do is to predict when it will happen. With that in mind, LBS Insider reached out to industry veterans to discuss the big buzz in 2013 in the industry — and what the future holds, next year and beyond.
“The valuation remains a mystery to many in the mapping community, but it is always nice to see a truly great exit in this business. There haven’t been enough for an industry that is both foundational in mobile and online, and really hard to do well,” said Marc Prioleau, president of Prioleau Advisors.
Prioleau says one of the big stories of 2013 was the reemergence of Apple Maps. “For all the flak they took, they’ve worked hard to make them better. Their default position in iOS has given them traffic, as has the extension to OSX in the Maverick’s release,” he said. “Last year you saw Apple start to buy companies that could extend the features (like HopStop), a sign that they think they’ve fixed the major problems and are working on moving forward. They are also hiring aggressively and have brought in some very good people.”
Last year, Prioleau predicted that the combination of data with location to derive better location-based context would be a big thing. “I think a lot has happened in that area with much more to come. It’s happening in apps (see Foursquare recommendations), advertising (PlaceIQ and others), CRM (SAP Precision retailing as an example),” he said. “There is a lot more to come here, and we should expect many new applications, most of which will do things badly, but some — likely the ones with the most targeted data — will do things that really change the model.”
Prioleau says MapBox is making mapping cool again (and Prioleau is a director at the company). “Just when all was going to be subsumed by the Google Maps juggernaut, MapBox is doing new interesting data visualization work,” he said.
Crowdsourcing being embraced by the wider mapping community is another big trend Prioleau has identified. “Everyone knows about OSm, but then you add Waze for crowdsourcing real-time traffic plus map corrections. Google is in deep with MapMaker, and even Nokia is pushing crowdsourced input,” he said. “It’s no longer the battle between crowdsourced maps and professional maps. It’s how to make the two work together.”
Prioleau sees the location industry having a few benchmarks in 2014. “I’ll stick with the same prediction as last year: Data + location for better location context. Google Now is a great benchmark,” he said. “Break out in location-based ad targeting. The technology is better, and the providers really understand the advertising market now. Complementary ad technologies like Real Time Bidding are maturing, and these will fit in to a model that really works. And if for no other reason, if we keep predicting it, it will be right one year, right?”
Prioleau believes Google Map domination will begin to show cracks. “Google has a great platform, but as they monetize it more aggressively, more companies will look for alternatives,” he said. “Apple maps will be one. HERE will be another. But solutions from MapBox and others will grow as well.”
In terms of connected car and other automotive technology, Prioleau says new and interesting applications will come from local search, driver services, and diagnostics — rather than just basic navigation.
Another industry insider, Mike Dobson, president of TeleMapis, said 2013 was a quiet year for location-based services. “Even the biggest deal, Google’s acquisition of Waze, does not look as if it will have much impact, other than as a defensive strategy. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the year was the stream of patents covering LBS and GIS-like applications from both Apple and Google, not to mention those of several start-ups,” he said.
From his perspective, Dobson said 2013 was yet another year in waiting, but 2014 looks like it might actually be exciting. “It appears that Google will finally make its move into the in-car navigation market. Apple is beginning to play with the idea of allowing its users access to a more GIS-like parsing of its map database,” he said. “Perhaps the biggest change will be a new focus on thematic maps that aim not to be navigation aids, but to perform the function of information devices for travelers and others using directed search technology. I suspect that 2014 will be another slow year for indoor positioning, but maybe it will flourish as a subset of BIM.”
Indoor Mapping Still Considered Trend for Location Industry
While many in the location industry have seen new companies and products coming to the indoor positioning market, at least one analyst says that Wi-Fi positioning has been weak.
“The biggest trend in 2013 was indoor mapping, the beginning of the hockey stick adoption curve in my opinion. Major retailers like Home Depot, Lowes, etc., launched indoor maps with product search/locator,” said industry veteran Kris Kolodziej. “What was overblown was indoor Wi-Fi positioning. The latency and accuracy is not good enough for micro location. It’s good enough to know what store/venue you’re in, but that’s about it.”
Kolodziej said that the big deal in 2014 will be ibeacons or Bluetooth low energy (BLE) for micro location and proximity services. “BLE solves the many shortcomings Wi-Fi has,” he said.
Prioleau says that in-door location will be big, but it is where outdoor location was in the early 1990s: many technologies and technology providers all pushing different solutions — and most will not succeed.
“Beyond the location technology, the market needs to figure out how the money will flow from beneficiaries of the market (retailers, brands) to the providers of indoor location technology (mostly semiconductor companies and tech companies). There is no natural connection,” he said.
