GPS World

Tag: location-based services

  • TeleCommunication Systems Adds 10 U.S. Patents Advancing LBS, Wireless

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued 10 U.S. patents to TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. during the second quarter of 2014. TCS also received two foreign patents during the quarter.

    The 10 U.S. patents describe innovations in messaging, location-based services, GIS/mapping and wireless. They include the following three:

    • TCS reported in the first quarter that it was issued a Prepaid Short Messaging Services patent. In the second quarter, TCS received notice that another prepaid patent was issued to the company that will serve as one of the cornerstone patents in a monetization program that TCS is planning to launch later this year. The prepaid market has grown into a multibillion-dollar per year industry, with 86 million prepaid users comprising 27 percent of all U.S. wireless users, according to a J.P. Morgan 2013 market report. The recently issued Prepaid Short Messaging patent (U.S. 8,738,496) is a continuation of earlier TCS prepaid patents, bringing TCS’ prepaid messaging portfolio to eight, with one additional pending. Most prepaid phone systems allow users a prescribed amount of prepaid messaging and wireless call time. The ‘496 patent describes techniques for determining if a recipient’s account is sufficiently funded to receive a message. If it is not, the system prevents the delivery of messages until the recipient’s account is sufficiently funded, when follow-on messages will be delivered.
    • A geofence defines a virtual spatial boundary for creating triggers when a mobile device either enters or exits that boundary. Geofences are commonly used in child location services to alert parents when a child’s mobile device leaves the boundary of a school or park, or by enterprises to track the location of a mobile workforce or equipment. Establishing a geofence can be complicated, requiring that the user manually draw the boundary on an electronic map. The recently issued TCS patent covering a Method and System for Identifying and Defining Geofences (U.S. 8,731,813) describes techniques to simply and easily create geofences based on real-world objects or places. Using the map/navigation application on a mobile device, the user simply selects the desired location, using its pre-defined boundary to create the geofence.
    • Thousands of portable computing platforms have emerged that have the capability of directly connecting to the Internet either through a wireless wide area network (such as cellular network or campus Wi-Fi network) via a front-end built into the device (smartphone, etc.), or, via Bluetooth or other short-range wireless communication, to a wireless proxy device such as a modem or a smartphone. With various low-cost, short-range wireless devices installed in vehicles for navigation or entertainment purposes, it has become increasingly important to provide an easy and efficient method for a motor vehicle manufacturer, parent or other authority to monitor and control access to certain sites when those devices are connected to the Internet. The recently issued Remotely Provisioned Wireless Proxy patent (U.S. 8,712,408) describes techniques to create white lists (allowed URLs) and black lists (disallowed URLs) within a wireless/mobile device acting as a proxy so that access to certain sites can be controlled effectively.

    The remaining seven U.S. patents issued in the period are: Integrated, Detachable Ear Bud Device for a Wireless Phone (U.S. 8,688,174); N-Dimensional Affinity Confluencer (U.S. 8,688,087); Login Security with Short Message (U.S. 8,712,453); Intelligent Reverse Geocoding (U.S. 8,731,585); Secure Location Session Manager (U.S. 8,687,511); System and Method for Location Assurance of a Mobile Device (U.S. 8,718,673); and Wireless Network Tour Guide (U.S. 8,744,491).

  • LocationSmart Issued Patent for Location-Based Dynamic Status Reporting

    LocationSmart, a provider of cloud-based location and interactivity services, has announced the issuance of US Patent 8,666,373 by the U.S. Patent Office for location reporting based on the dynamic status of a user. The patent covers a system and method of determining location for the user, including dynamically determining a status of the user and allowing acquisition of the user’s location based on the determined status.

    The issued patent enhances LocationSmart’s cloud-based, cross-carrier location and interactivity platform that is powering the enterprise with location insights through a comprehensive set of web services application programming interfaces (APIs), the company said.

    This patent further covers the location reporting of a person based on a dynamically monitored status; for example, when an employee is on the job versus when the employee is on his or her own time. Reporting is responsive to the received location tracking request, based on current status and allowed permissions. This is significantly instrumental for monitoring and managing mobile workforces, LocationSmart said.

    “Knowledge of when to obtain location information based on dynamically changing status is fundamental to several of our key verticals,” said Mario Proietti, CEO of LocationSmart. “This patent strengthens the protection and rendering of our services for mobile check-ins and status reporting in the workforce management and transportation sectors.”

    The LocationSmart platform is employed by leading companies in a number of industries, enabling a multitude of applications including service assistance, proximity marketing, workforce check-ins, emergency alerting, mobile gaming and transaction verification.

  • Test Shows Galileo Increases Accuracy of Location-Based Services

    The European GNSS Agency (GSA) and Rx Networks Inc., a mobile location technology and services company, announced the results of tests conducted by the company measuring the performance of Galileo when used in various combinations with GPS and GLONASS.

    Tests were conducted in real-world environments, including urban canyons and indoors. These environments pose significant challenges to location accuracy due to multipath and obstructed views of satellites. Each test consisted of a three-hour data capture of GNSS signals, which was later replayed to produce hundreds of fixes using a multi-constellation GNSS receiver from STMicroelectronics.

    The results showed that using Galileo with one or more other GNSS constellations provides significantly more accurate location fixes compared to GPS alone, when indoors or in urban canyons. As expected, the GPS+Galileo combination did not exceed the performance of GPS+GLONASS, due primarily to there only being four Galileo satellites available at the time of the testing. It is expected that, as more Galileo satellites are launched, the combination of Galileo with GPS will show further improvements in performance, GSA and RX Networks said.

    According to Gian-Gherado Calini, head of Market Development at the GSA, “Dual-constellation GNSS designs are the standard for many smartphones and other devices. The combination of GPS and Galileo provides a robust solution and is expected to offer performance that will meet or exceed end-user expectations.”

    “The results should be encouraging to any GNSS chipset manufacturer who is considering adding Galileo as a competitive differentiator,” said Adrian Stimpson, senior vice president of Sales and Marketing, Rx Networks.

    Test Results

    Recent test results confirm that Galileo significantly improves accuracy in challenging environments:

    GSA-Positive-Test-Results-27-May

    The tables above show the summary results for various scenarios and constellation combinations. The GPS row shows the absolute 2D errors in meters. All other rows show the improvement (+) or degradation (-) in meters and percentages relative to GPS-only fixes. All measurements are within the 95th percentile.

  • DeCarta Search Engine for LBS Expands to 120 Countries

    deCarta, Inc., an independent LBS platform company, has expanded coverage of its advanced local search technology, the L2 Geospatial Search Engine, to 120 countries including Europe, North America, and most major countries around the world.

    L2 is a high-performance, scalable local search engine with single line input to enable a more intuitive user interface, the company said. deCarta sources and indexes premium map and POI (Points of Interest) content but also enables customers to index and control their own content using the L2 Index tools.

    deCarta’s L2 has advantages over most other search engines in that it can be used as a pure geocoder for address search, or for POI search….or simultaneously as a combination of the two mixed in a single line search query – with the additional ability to tune this behavior at runtime. This gives developers maximum flexibility and creativity in producing their mobile and desktop applications. The new expanded country coverage now enables deCarta customers to offer truly global services.

    The L2 Search engine is an integral component of deCarta’s LBS platform which provides specialized geospatial technologies for maps, routing, navigation, geocoding, local search and geo-data integration and processing. deCarta offers two deployment models for its LBS platform: a Hosted LBS Platform Service (PaaS) or, alternatively, customers can self-host the platform either on-premise or in a cloud service such as Amazon’s AWS. Both approaches utilize deCarta’s advanced REST API architecture and can scale to support billions of maps and searches and millions of users per month.

    L2 enables deCarta’s customers to offer flexible, advanced local search capabilities that are on par with Google Maps but beyond other search engines, deCarta said. Examples include:

    • Single line entry of POI or address or both
    • Fast typeahead, predictive entry – ideal for mobile devices and web interfaces
    • High tolerance for misspellings and partial entries
    • Random ordering of address parameters
    • Search for a POI near a POI, such as:
      • “Coffee near XYZ company”
      • “Restaurants on Main Street”
      • “ATMs near AMC Theater”
    • Search for POI near a specific address, such as “Parking near 1234 Main Street”

    Furthermore, the ability to integrate L2 with deCarta’s patented “Search Along A Route” technology gives automotive OEMs and Telematics Service Providers the ability to offer more advanced and helpful “driver-centric” connected car services.

    “We are excited by the market reaction to L2 since its introduction last year,” said J. Kim Fennell, CEO of deCarta. “We’re winning business competing with, and in some cases replacing, major local search engines such as Google Maps based on the merits of L2’s technology advantages, customization capabilities, flexible content offerings, less restrictive license terms and our superior customer service – all of which creates a more satisfied customer experience.”

    deCarta offers a “house blend” of premium map and POI content with L2. It works closely with worldwide and regional map data providers including TomTom, Nokia/HERE, OpenStreetMap (OSM), AND, Sensis, IPC, Nav2 and eMapgo; as well as leading POI providers and other content sources (traffic, parking, weather, speed cameras, etc). deCarta integrates and de-duplicates multiple content sources for optimum search results.

    deCarta provides the tools to let companies index and search on their own content for maximum control and commercial advantage. This content can stand alone or be merged with industry map and POI content. Customers can “boost” content and control rankings to suit their needs. These capabilities provide huge benefits for local search companies, Automotive OEMs and telematics service providers seeking to offer their users the best customer care and connected car services.

    For more information on L2, please visit deCarta’s web site at www.decarta.com or go straight to the demo. Developers can find more technical details at deCarta’s DevZone.

  • LBS Market Worth $39.87 Billion by 2019

    A newly issued report by MarketsandMarkets focuses on growth in the location-based services market, and says it will be worth $39.87 billion by 2019.

    The report, “Location Based Services (LBS) Market (Mapping, Discovery and Infotainment, Location Analytics, Leisure and Social Networking, Location Based Advertising, Augmented Reality and Gaming, Tracking) — Worldwide Forecasts and Analysis (2014-2019),” provides a comprehensive market and forecast analysis of the overall market, segmented by products, services, technologies, applications, regions, and verticals. The report covers all the major sub segments of the LBS market and provides the quantitative (market size and market growth) and qualitative (trends, analysis, and insights) analysis for those segments.

    Included are 99 market data tables, 17 figures spread through 254 pages, and an in-depth table of contents on the LBS market. This comprehensive coverage of the LBS Market provides important inputs such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities in this market, profiles the major players in this market, maps the competitive landscape, and provides the overall perspective on the LBS Market in the various verticals and regions, according to MarketsandMarkets.

    LBS is a solution that stands for applications that integrate geographic locations information with business processes, helping in analysis of location information. The location-based information is required in distinct business data sets for relating, comparing, and analyzing relationships in the data. The service also provides an economical alternative to agencies with existing internal GIS resources. As a result of these multidimensional benefits of location information, operators are considering it as an asset, leading to numerous investments being made to extract, use and market it.

  • Location-Based Advertising Getting Higher Visibility

    Location-Based Advertising Getting Higher Visibility

    Airpush-MWC
    Airpush

    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 Insider reported 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.

     

  • Qualcomm Collaborates with Samsung to be First to Employ BeiDou for Location-Based Mobile Data

    Qualcomm Incorporated has announced that its subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., is enhancing location precision in smartphones and tablets initially in China with support for China’s BeiDou Satellite Navigation System.

    Supporting the BeiDou constellation within Qualcomm IZat location solutions increases the number of satellites that Qualcomm-based devices can access to provide greater position location accuracy. Qualcomm is collaborating with Samsung to launch the first wave of BeiDou enhanced consumer smartphones, demonstrating the commitment of the companies to provide technology that delivers optimum performance for location-based services within China and globally.

    Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor (MSM8974), the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (WCDMA 3G version SM-N9006 & TD-LTE 4G version SM-N9008V) uses the industry’s first, integrated tri-band location platform to provide more accurate and responsive location data to mobile users. It does so by concurrently processing signals from multiple satellite networks. Armed with this capability, users will have more enjoyable experiences using their location-based services, even in the most challenging of environments.

    Leveraging Qualcomm IZat location solutions, Samsung will be able to deliver an optimal user experience with quick and accurate location information and services in China. Historically, this has been a challenge in some locations, especially in urban canyons, where devices may suffer from low visibility to satellites blocked by tall buildings that obstruct the signals. Bringing BeiDou-enabled phones to China means the Galaxy Note 3 has access to more satellites, which increases location accuracy. This ultimately improves customers’ pedestrian navigation, speeds local searches and enhances other location-based services.

    Qualcomm’s mobile chipsets feature interoperability with existing constellations, which use tri-band hardware integration to deliver improved location capabilities in an optimal way, with enhanced accuracy, and with no additional increase in power consumption. In Snapdragon and Gobi™ chipsets, global positioning support is built into the modem and RF chips, enabling the location signals to be processed in the modem, instead of waking up the apps processor, thus saving power without sacrificing location accuracy.

    “This industry-first implementation of BeiDou in a smartphone underscores Qualcomm’s leadership in the location industry. More than 3 billion devices which feature Qualcomm’s location technology have shipped to date and the introduction of BeiDou is the latest step to evolve our technology,” said Amir Faintuch, president, Qualcomm Atheros. “We see BeiDou’s support being an important factor for OEMs in China, and globally as well. With this new location enhancement, we believe our customers can bring greater differentiation with advanced performance, applications and services.”

  • Antenna Module for Embedded LBS Receivers

    Photo: Parsec PTA
    Photo: Parsec PTA

    The Parsec PTA and PT active and passive antenna modules integrate seamlessly with the Telit Jupiter SE880 GPS receiver for market leading location aware applications in performance and miniaturization.

    The PTA/PT family delivers best-in-class linearity in the third-order-intercept point (IP3), the measure of a receiver’s critical ability to differentiate signal from noise. All PTA and PT antenna modules are based on Parsec’s family of low noise amplifier (LNA) integrated circuits (ICs).

    The antennas are designed for embedded LBS receivers requiring good user experience that operate with obstructed view of orbiting satellites. The PTA1.5M improves GNSS receiver sensitivity to offset high path loss, improves immunity to receiver descending caused by close proximity radio transceivers, and mitigate the effects of interference from radio mixing products.

    To learn more, visit the Parsec website.

  • ORBCOMM, Savi Announce Strategic LBS Partnership

    ORBCOMM Inc., and Savi Technology have announced a strategic relationship to provide advanced location-based monitoring solutions to government and commercial markets.

    ORBCOMM is a global provider of machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions, and Savi Technology is a provider of sensor-based analytics and radio-frequency identification (RFID) solutions.

    ORBCOMM and Savi have submitted a proposal in response to the U.S. Army RFID IV project, which will provide both ISO18000-7 RFID tags and a suite of satellite solutions for military logistics support. ORBCOMM’s GlobalTrak division has been a leading player in providing military Enhanced-In-Transit-Visibility (EITV) solutions to the government market since 2008, and Savi has been a market leader in military RFID solutions, enabling it to offer vast market experience with the right blend of technology platforms for this proposal.

    “The combination of ORBCOMM’s satellite expertise and broad network service portfolio with Savi’s state-of-the-art RFID technology offers a full spectrum of innovative monitoring solutions to our collective market base with focus on our government and international customers,” said Marc Eisenberg, Chief Executive Officer of ORBCOMM. “Although RFID and satellite tracking have traditionally been divergent technologies, the synergy of these solutions within a common operating environment creates a seamless transition from infrastructure to wireless-based location services for tracking and monitoring high-value assets.”

    “By bringing two market leaders with highly complementary technologies together, we have created a best-of-breed solution for our customers in both government and commercial markets,” said Bill Clark, chief executive officer of Savi Technology. “This relationship will support Savi’s operational analytics capabilities by providing additional ways to collect critical data and deliver timely and reliable operational intelligence to our customers. We look forward to partnering with ORBCOMM on RFID IV and other global opportunities in the near future.”

  • AirPatrol Quantum Leaps Into Location-Based Services

    Moving to stake a claim in the burgeoning location-based services and applications market, mobile systems developer AirPatrol Corporation has announced a pair of new offerings designed to let organizations and 3rd software developers enable app and information delivery to mobile devices in zones as small as six feet across.

    The first product, ZoneAware, is a locationing and delivery platform made up of passive sensors and a software-based locationing engine that gives organizations the ability to identify both 802.11 Wi-Fi and 2G/3G/4G cellular devices and enable different applications, information delivery, and mobile services as the device moves through monitored zones within a facility. AirPatrol’s other new offering is third-party access to its AirPatrol Zone Engine, which will allow software developers to leverage AirPatrol’s device locationing technologies to enable mobile apps and information delivery based on zones up to 30 times more precise than other locationing tools.

    “We’re heading into a post-PC world where smartphones, tablets and wearable computing will be changing their behavior and the information they provide based on where the user is and what she is doing at the time,” said Cleve Adams, CEO of AirPatrol. “Most locationing technologies can provide a general area of where a device is — within 100 to 1,000 feet — which is fine for generalized activities like finding restaurants within a mile of you, but it’s not particularly useful when you want real precision. AirPatrol’s Zone technologies can notify the maître d’ to prepare a table when a VIP steps into the restaurant, tell an emergency responder exactly what floor and room an E911 caller is in, even securely deliver patient records to a doctor’s tablet when he enters the patient’s hospital room.”

    Key to AirPatrol’s Zone technologies are a combination of passive sensors that detect and identify radio signals emanating from devices on both cellular and WiFi networks, and a software platform that does the heavy work of measuring those signals and adjusting for obstructions like wood, metal, stone and glass, to deliver pinpoint locationing and the triggers to apps and information based on the zone through which the device is traveling.

    “The ability to provide precision locationing in all building types using cellular/Wi-Fi detection and not just WiFi is a major benefit of AirPatrol’s technology,” Adams said. “Wi-Fi coverage is notoriously difficult in indoor locations with lots of obstructions such as walls. Many people are also simply turning mobile’s Wi-Fi off to reduce security risks and, increasingly, because 4G cellular is faster and more reliable. Because we use both, AirPatrol’s Zone technology can provide far more consistent and accurate locationing no matter whether the device is moving or stationary, indoors or outdoors. In short, we’re detecting the other half of the cellular users no other Wi-Fi-only solution can see,” he said.

    AirPatrol’s locationing technologies were originally developed for government and military security applications where precision locationing and forensic tracking of all mobile devices was a requirement. In 2012, the company released an enterprise version of its ZoneDefense mobile security platform which augmented the device monitoring features with the ability to connect to and trigger 3rd party mobile device and application management tools (MDM/MAM), policy managers, network and endpoint security tools based on location. It was the 3rd party connectors that spawned AirPatrol’s new offerings.

    “The moment companies realized we could add a location-based component to all of the mobile apps and tools they were using we started getting inquiries about connecting healthcare applications, retail services, marketing tools, and a whole list of other non-security-related systems to our ZoneDefense platform,” Adams said. “Given how much people use and depend on their mobile devices for work, home and entertainment these days, it only made sense to open the platform up to other applications and developers.”

    AirPatrol’s ZoneAware platform will be available in early Q4 of 2013. Application developers, information providers and other third parties who would like to connect their products to the AirPatrol Zone Engine can apply to join the AirPatrol developer partners program via the AirPatrol website.

  • Mobile Location-Based Advertising Will Be Worth 6.5B Euros in 2017

    According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the total value of the global real-time mobile location-based advertising and marketing (LBA) market will grow from €526 million in 2012 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 65 percent to €6.5 billion in 2017. This will then correspond to 32.8 percent of all mobile advertising and marketing. This means that location-based advertising and marketing will represent around 5 percent of digital advertising, or more than 1 percent of the total global ad spend for all media. SMS, mobile search and coupons are today important high-volume LBA formats.

    The ability to precisely target prospective customers using real-time location is currently one of the most promising additions to the advertising toolbox, Berg Insight said. “Key drivers for LBA include the growing adoption of both outdoor and indoor location technologies, as well as the increasing consumer acceptance of location-based services in general,” said Rickard Andersson, Telecom Analyst, Berg Insight. Location targeting in combination with other contextual and behavioral segmentation greatly enhances the relevance of mobile advertising. “Major brands are so far the main spenders, but LBA has also opened the mobile channel for small local merchants. Local businesses can extend their marketing initiatives with mobile components such as location-sensitive coupons using online self-services, while big box retailers leverage enterprise LBA solutions for conquesting and to combat showrooming,” Andersson said.

    The LBA value chain is still forming and there are a large number of players involved in the ecosystem, Berg Insight said. Since the value chain is fragmented and the industry has not yet reached maturity, many different roles are involved. Companies range from LBA specialists such as Verve, Placecast and xAd, to LBS players including Telmap, Telenav and Waze, and operators such as AT&T, SFR and the new UK joint venture Weve.

    There is, furthermore, an abundance of location-aware applications and media that serve geo-targeted ads, with examples such as Foursquare, Shopkick and SCVNGR. Other stakeholders include coupons and deals providers including Vouchercloud, Yowza!! and COUPIES, search solutions such as Yell and Yelp, and proximity marketing providers like Proxama, NeoMedia and Scanbuy. A number of traditional mobile advertising players are also active in the LBA space, for example Millennial Media, Madvertise and Nexage, as well as major digital and telecom players such as Google, Apple and Facebook.