Tag: Google Maps

Google’s recent announcement that it plans to enhance its 3D maps on the Android platform was seen as a preemptive strike against Apple, which is planning a similar announcement. In other recent news, some analysts and trade press are saying Verizon is paying way too much for Hughes Telematics. All of this is making for an interesting summer for the location industry.

 

Google recently demonstrated new 3D capability for Google Earth, in a move that some say preempted a similar announcement by Apple, which will roll out its own product at our deadline during the Worldwide Developers Conference.

While Apple is set to announce its own version of a mapping program for iOS that does not use Google Maps, some in the industry are wondering if the 3D capability is enough for developers to stay with Google, particularly with the fees the company is charging high-volume users. The big winner in the Apple announcement was TomTom, which has signed a global agreement with Apple for maps and related information. No further details of the agreement will be provided, the company said.

In terms of upstaging Apple via 3D, one company executive thinks that is overblown. “I don’t think Google was trying to do that directly on just that feature. I think they are very concerned about the Apple announcement — not just because they will lose Apple as a customer, they will, but because they fear a ‘wow’ factor upstaging them despite all the great work [Google] has done to date,” said Kim Fennell, deCarta president and CEO. “Their press conference last week was more about reminding everyone how hard it is to do this stuff really well, and I think they wanted to remind Apple, and the market, it takes a lot do the complete mapping solution really well. I think their Google Earth capabilities with street views and their new 3D modeling is a major investment and they wanted to set the overall bar high for Apple.”

DeCarta says half of its new developers are coming from Google Maps. The company says that, in the last 90 days, 488 new companies have signed up to its developer’s program.

In a white paper, de Carta says:  “The timing of this surge confirms that Google is no longer seen as the ‘Benevolent Provider of Free Stuff’ that it once was. What is more surprising is that not all of the companies jumping ship are big guys…in fact some are not even close to the 25,000/day map threshold that Google uses to trigger the hounds.”

The company contends that there is a common theme that developers want to work within clearly defined partnerships, how much they will need to pay, and whether or not they can execute their business model — especially if that involves advertising. “They want to create some differentiation and most of all, they want to know whether or not their partner will one day decide to compete with them,” the company white paper says. This restriction trickles down to real estate, travel, local search, and other sites, the company says.

Fennell said deCarta started working with Google competitor OpenStreetMap in 2009 when it was early in the market and there were almost no takers.  “We were too early, the market wasn’t really looking for an alternative yet — and the map data quality wasn’t good enough. Three years later, it is looking much more interesting both from supply (map data availability) and demand (customer interest),” he said.

Verizon’s Purchase of Hughes Telematics a Financial Reach?

To strengthen its presence in the machine-to-machine and connected car market, Verizon Communications said it plans to buy Atlanta-based Hughes Telematics Inc. for $612 million, or $12 per share. The high price has some analysts scratching their heads — particularly because Hughes was trading at only $4.35 per share the day the deal was announced.

Hughes Telematics, which competes with OnStar, began to provide LBS, connected safety and convenience services to Mercedes-Benz customers in 2009.

“I was frankly surprised at the valuation considering HTI’s financial position. I assume Verizon sees a lot of value in the Mercedes account and potential value in HTI’s VW account — and at least one other OEM account which they are expected to get,” said Clem Driscoll, president of CJ Driscoll Associates.  “I think it is also clear that Verizon’s plans called for increasing its role in telematics through acquisition of a telematics service provider. A previous attempt at a TSP acquisition was unsuccessful. HTI clearly has some good technology, as evidenced by the Mercedes Mbrace solution.”

Driscoll said that Hughes Telematics’ financial problems probably discouraged some auto OEMs from using them in the past, but those issues should now be resolved.

The Verizon-Hughes Telematics acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter. Verizon plans to retain Hughes Telematics’ management, operate the company as a subsidiary of its Verizon Enterprise Solutions group, and keep the company headquartered in Atlanta.

ITS America Holds Small Annual Meeting — Why?

It isn’t big news that private companies still court government contracts and attend the ITS America Annual meeting in Washington to work on connected vehicle committees. However, this is the first time I’ve covered this conference, and I’ve attended off-and-on since 1993, to notice attendance has reached the point that only a few die-hard private sector companies are going to this government-focused meeting.

Remember, the ITS America meeting was the only game in town in the 1990s and early 2000s, with two of the dominant players at that time, Navteq and Etak (later to be purchased by Tele Atlas) anchoring a growing navigation and location industry.

Instead of ITS America dominating the entire connected vehicle conference market, most private companies choose to attend the pricier Telematics Update Detroit meeting. What made the meeting more disappointing is the fact that ITS America does attempt to focus on the connected vehicle. The U.S. Transportation Department invited delegates and the press to a connected vehicle demonstration with Ford, General Motors, and Toyota, among other team members. The demonstration highlights this summer’s testing of 3,000 vehicles, which will test crash-avoidance technologies in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in a year-long government program.

Still, some companies attended such as Inrix, Beat the Traffic, and TomTom. The Virginia Transportation Department is partnering with TomTom to analyze where travelers entered and exited the I-95/I-64 corridor.

Some companies are getting ITS grants, such as Xerox, which grabbed $15 million from the U.S. DOT for a pilot program incorporating real-time parking guidance systems, among other projects. These parking systems, using smartphone apps from Streetline, enable motorists to view spaces based on price, location, and real-time availability.

Simulators Keeping LBS Companies on Target

Spirent Communications, which is monitoring the popularity of LBS, said its new GNSS simulator supports simulation of signals from individual or combined GPS/SBAS, GLONASS, and Galileo constellations, with eight satellites per constellation.

The company, which said it recognizes the increase in LBS’ momentum and the market need for improved positioning performance on mobile devices, has expanded its LBS LTE test product to support an LTE Positioning Protocol and Observed Time Difference of Arrival. The company says both are critical enablers for LBS adoption.

The big news at the recent O’Reilly Where 2.0 and GPS-Wireless conferences, both located in the San Francisco Bay Area, may be continued industry fallout from Google’s decision to start charging higher volume users. Location-based services may have jumped the shark, as one Nokia executive said at GPS-Wireless, but such deals as Foursquare’s partnership with American Express can only help grow consumer awareness and drive mobile purchases. Indoor positioning and connected vehicles continued to be a hot topic at both Where 2.0 and GPS-Wireless. Yet, at least one executive at GPS-Wireless said that “the year of LBS has come and gone — and nobody noticed it.”

 

SAN FRANCISCO — A few companies in the location industry have decided to change mapping vendors in the wake of Google’s decision to start charging companies when their sites averaged 25,000 map views per day. Around the time of the recent 2012 Mobile World Congress, Foursquare said it would move from using Google Maps to user-contributed map service OpenStreetMap. The company said Google’s recent price increases prompted the change.

Foursquare did not change mapping vendors because of the quality of the maps, said Holger Luedorf, Foursquare vice president and head of business development. “Google Maps are a great product. We are big fans of openness, but it was not the lack of quality why we switched,” he said at GPS-Wireless 2012.

But while some companies are heading to other places because of the Google charging policy, the company says it is still doing well. “We did announce that Google was going to start charging for 25,000 or more [map hits]. In terms of usage, we have actually gone up since the announcement,” said Jay Akkad, Google product manager, mobile local ads, also at GPS-Wireless conference.

One of the big topics at GPS-Wireless is the idea that the term location-based services has “jumped the shark” in terms of consumer awareness and acceptance. “What the hell is LBS? It is an enabling technology,” said Duncan McCall, PlaceIQ co-founder and CEO. “The mythical Starbucks LBS deal does not make me care. We now have advertisers who have a particular [return on investment] they are looking for.”

At least one speaker, on a venture capital panel, said that the expression “LBS” hasn’t been useful in defining the market in at least eight years. “The huge opportunity is not location — there are tons of 100K-a-year-guys staying at the Red Roof Inn and not the Four Seasons. The huge opportunity is how people shape their habits — and location is one way,” said Prioleau Advisors’ Marc Prioleau. “Banner ads push to consumers, but the objective is loyalty. It’s the ‘we know where you are and where you go’ model.”

In all of the talk about LBS, the usual “who pays for it” was a hot topic at GPS-Wireless. “With 150,000 ads on a platform, [the consumer] doesn’t have to pay for it,” Luedorf said.

For the navigation piece of LBS, it still is the one area consumers know about and want, panel members said.

“Navigation still is hot. More than half of our users choose to use carrier-branded navigation,” said Brian Salisbury, TCS director of business development. “Consumers will start marginalizing a [paid for] service when it stops producing for them. The value for the consumer is if it is bundled with other services—sometimes that bundle is subsidized.”

People still are paying for navigation, despite attendees saying that a freemium model is the future, said Kris Kolodziej, Verizon Wireless associate director of cloud and location services. “Consumers are always going to find options. Maybe they will be looking at premium traffic [in the future],” he said.

Groupon, which presented at GPS-Wireless, announced at the recent 2012 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that one quarter of its users purchased vouchers through a mobile service, a triple increase to more than 9 million deals. The company also said that LBS and proximity-based sales will increase because it plans to roll out mobile service in more than 30 countries soon. Currently, the company has its daily-deal service, online, in 48 countries.

“The core foundation of our company is the daily deal. Groupon Now goes into the core of location — where we are expanding into 30 markets — so location doesn’t get more specific,” said Andreas Lieber, Groupon director of mobile partnerships. “We recently released our mobile numbers and are seeing 25 percent growth — this is a really significant revenue stream.”

Mobile searches and deals will continue to grow, Google’s Akkad said. “Mobile searches have grown four times since 2010, according to our user surveys. This is a huge opportunity for developers,” he said. “One area we have noticed is the ability to close the loop in the location business. Businesses have to identify who is coming into their stores — that’s why hyper local ads are important — because of the proximity signal that tends to be a strong signal.”

The big location market still is evolving, but Foursquare’s deal last summer with American Express doesn’t hurt consumer awareness. “The deal with American Express drives users to Foursquare. No one knows how it is going to play out, but we are seeing an uplift as people are spending money,” Luedorf said. “[Location is] not monetizing heavily right now — companies need scale. But it actually is selling. We believe it’s through an ad model we can build, but not a premium service. Facebook and Twitter are trying to monetize — we will see.”

While the deal with American Express is a nationwide one where cardholders check in with Foursquare on their mobile devices at certain shops and restaurants for deals, check-ins may not be the emphasis the company wants in the future. “We are seeing more people consuming the data — not just checking in. They want to see what’s local in terms of tips for eating out and drinking and other entertainment,” Luedorf said.

Overhyped Expressions in the Location Industry           

One of this editor’s pet peeves is the use of the word “experience” as in “consumer experience” when a company official describes a market, product or service. In a new technology and markets panel, moderator Clay Babcock of Rand McNally asked his panel what is an overhyped expression in the location industry. Kanwar Chadha of CSR said, “GNSS triangulation, TV or otherwise.”

Nick Brachet, CTO of Skyhook Wireless said, “near field communications.” Babcock chimed in with “augmented reality,” the expression “gadget play.” David Allen, CTO of Locaid said “anything to do with beacons.” Ankit Agarwal, Micello CEO, “any Starbucks story, especially something about a coupon.” One person said, in a conference filled with this story line, “indoor positioning is overhyped.”

At Where 2.0, the expression “SoLoMoCo” is destined to be one of those types of overhyped monikers. SoLoMoCo stands for a busy mix of social, local, mobile and commerce.

Panel at GPS-Wireless.

Exhibits at GPS-Wireless.