GPS World

Tag: Wireless LBS Insider

  • 2013: A Positive Year for Location Industry

     

    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.

    It’s that time of year — to assess the big deals and trends — good, bad and ugly — in the worldwide location industry. Some of the stories seem obvious, such as the Google acquisition of Waze for more than $1 billion.

    “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.

  • Public Geolocation Vault on the Horizon?

    Imagine a vault of highly accurate geolocation data that provides look-up service for any device, in any country, based on publicly sent signal data. It is an appealing idea. Mozilla, best known for its popular Firefox browser, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to openness on the web. No one is better positioned to create the very first public geolocation database. Mozilla wants to build the data service with the end goals of enabling innovation and improving location data privacy. The group makes the point that improving the privacy of user data is counter incentivizing for-profit companies that collect this data. Privacy continues to be a major industry issue that has gotten more than one company in trouble with regulators and customers.

    Mozilla is starting out with a pilot project, named “Mozilla Location Service,” to assess how it would build and operate a location service to provide geolocation look-up for devices. The data will be based on publicly observed cell tower, Wi-Fi or IP address information. Mozilla is enlisting its loyal community to collect the data via a special app for Android-based phones.

    Admitting Wrongness. Those of us who skewered Apple for its map troubles continue to eat crow. The Apple maps have improved and are popular, or at least good enough, with most iPhone and iPad users in the U.S. As you may recall, Google maps were expelled from the iPhone when Google refused to give Apple access to its turn-by-turn navigation. Google, who had delighted in Apple’s map debacle, has now been badly humbled. The company has lost almost 23 million mobile users in the U.S. as a result of its banishment. iOS users can still assess Google Maps, but data from market research firm ComScore suggests that few actually take the trouble to download Google Maps. When iOS 6 began to roll out and introduced Apple’s maps as the default, the number using Google Maps dropped precipitously, even as the number of iPhones and Android phones began rising.

    Big Money from Mapping. The value of being a map provider cannot be underestimated. Both Apple and Google cull anonymous data for traffic reporting and improving their network. More importantly, they have created a gold mine by using the data to glean for behavioral information about users. The data is fed to advertisers who create contextual ads that are more likely to get us to buy. Google also uses the data to improve search results.

    Good news for the Enterprise Industry. A survey of 500 fleet operators conducted by C.J. Driscoll and Associates shows high satisfaction and strong intent to purchase GPS fleet management systems. From an enterprise customer’s standpoint, GPS-enabled solutions are measured by how quickly the company can recoup its outlay. An impressive two thirds of the fleets surveyed reported that they have recouped their investment in their GPS fleet solutions. Of the fleets that haven’t deployed a GPS fleet management system, 16 percent indicated that they expect to do so within the next 18 months. The fleet survey is contained in the C.J. Driscoll 2013-14 Survey of Fleet Operator Interest in MRM Systems and Services report.

    The Final Frontier: Indoor Location. Applications are increasingly hungry for ubiquitous, well-performing location for all devices. Sensor fusion, or the intelligent combination of data from multiple sensors, will become a standard feature to help make this happen in indoor locales. “Sensor fusion will surpass Wi-Fi and Bluetooth low energy (BLE) as the most important handset-based indoor location technology by 2017,” predicts Patrick Connolly of ABI Research. “We see a significant trend towards hybridization, with Wi-Fi, BLE, and sensor fusion proving to be vital.” Companies in this market include Movea, HillCrest, indoo.rs, and Senionlab.

    Wind Blowing in New Direction. PlaceIQ, the location context company, has ventured into location-based behavior analytics. The start-up company had been focused on providing information on the context of location in small geographic areas, 100 by 100 square meter units. One of the company’s new offerings, PIQ Analytics, “can identify which competitors a brand’s audience is most likely to visit, the restaurants where they typically dine, the type of device they use, and the stores that they frequent,” reports the PlaceIQ website. The company’s other new product tracks individuals and “determines where consumers were before arriving at a brand’s physical location.” PlaceIQ is going to have to careful how it treads this ground, if it wants to avoid raising opposition from privacy watchdog groups.

    Mapping Sadness  As you may have heard, a father has discovered that Google Maps shows the body of his son, who was shot to death in 2009 beside a railroad track in Richmond, California. In a written statement, Google announced that it would accelerate the replacement of the satellite image of the map, the first time that it made such a change due to a request. Google indicated would take about eight days to make the change, as the image has continued to be visible on their maps. Perhaps a reader can explain to me why replacing this map segment would take so long, or why the image could not have been obscured by Google until the replacement is made?

    I will be moderating a session at the IEEE International Conference on Connected Vehicles and Expo on December 5 in Las Vegas. The SAE-organized panel is on Connected Infotainment. The panelist are industry experts who will share perspectives in this interactive session.

  • Companies Looking to Profit with Niche Fleet Markets

    Companies Looking to Profit with Niche Fleet Markets

    Logo: American Towman ExpositionNiche markets for location companies are sometimes hit-and-miss. One real opportunity that is gaining more traction among location companies is towing. There are legions of Duck Dynasty-type of towing trade show attendees, but you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. There is tons of money in the towing industry as banks, insurance companies, motor clubs and other technology entities are flocking to these shows. Many times that scruffy-looking guy in a Duck Dynasty T-shirt is a multi-million-dollar owner of a big towing company. Companies such as Verizon are ramping up their fleet opportunities for more conventional markets, which leads one to say, once again, that the fleet, mobile resource management market is still growing and lucrative.

    BALTIMORE — Although it is a strong niche market, the towing industry is gaining traction among the dozen or so location companies that were exhibing at the recent American Towman Exposition here.

    Location companies exhibiting asked towing operators to look at the usual benefits of their products: fuel savings, dispatching tow trucks to the nearest incident, reducing idle time, reduced overtime hours, monitoring of speeds and other features. The location companies present were TomTom, Teletrac, Fleetmatics, Progressive Platforms and others.

    Several financial institutions were on site who acknowledged the importance of tracking and monitoring technology in towing company fleets and headquarters. One banker said that he will not give a loan to a towing company unless it has, across a fleet, a real-time tracking system. The same goes for many insurance companies.

    TomTom Business Solutions is offering its Webfleet product to tow companies. The company recently integrated the unit with Service Station Computer Systems Digital Dispatch software to reduce administrative tasks between an office and tower site. At the conference, towing software and services companies such as FTI Groups are integrating location company products from BudgetGPS, Geotab, TomTom and sureFleet Mobile into their offerings for transportation markets.

    One challenge that location companies may have in smaller niche markets is volume. One company says it cannot sell to fleets with five or fewer trucks.

    Verizon Partnering with Samsung and XRS on Trucking Product

    Verizon recently partnered with Samsung Telecommunications America and XRS Corp. on a mobile software product, called NXT, for the transportation industry. The unit uses Verizon’s 4G LTE network and works on Samsung Mobile’s devices.

    NXT allows drivers and fleets to use Samsung Mobile devices with an XRS trucking software subscription. The unit is available on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 and has a $54 per month data and subscription plan. Other fees include $39 for a monthly XRS fee and $15 for wireless data.

    The NXT rollout doesn’t affect sales or shift away from in-vehicle hardware now offered by Verizon, said Michael Toto, Verizon Enterprise Solutions director of strategic global alliances. “We view this as a complementary addition, not a shift away from our in-vehicle solutions,” he said.

    Toto says that the company’s partnerships, with Samsung and XRS, allow Verizon to provide a broader portfolio that allows its customers more business options. With best-in-class partnerships, such as Samsung and XRS, it can provide a broader solution portfolio allowing its customers to select a solution that closely matches business needs.

    Toto believes the NXT deal is a big deal and differentiates Verizon from other wireless carriers’ fleet offerings. “NXT is a game changer in the fleet industry because it is a comprehensive solution to help transportation companies be MAP 21 compliant,” he said. “The elements are available separately, but have never been offered before as a complete end-to-end solution.”

    Toto says Verizon provides high-speed wireless connectivity right now for operators. “Tomorrow we will further integrate the solution with Verizon technologies,” he said.

    Echoing what Toto said, NXT also offers integration with many enterprise transportation products. Over time, the platform collaboration will expand to introduce additional components, including MDM and wearable products, the companies said in a prepared statement.

    The product, which was developed through the Samsung Solutions Exchange program, works in both over-the-road and private carrier configurations — and according to the companies — is tailored to fleets of all sizes. The companies say that since the unit works on certified smartphones, tablets and handhelds, it allows companies to comply with the pending Electronic Logging Device, or ELD, mandate for recording driver’s hours-of-service.

    In other location news:

    • The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently said that more than two-thirds of the calls to 911 emergency centers in Texas from wireless phones do not include the accurate location information necessary to find a caller in crisis. The data, provided to the FCC by state and local 911 agencies, show a dramatic drop in more accurate “Phase II” data in Texas from 67 percent of all wireless calls in January 2011 to just 33 percent in June 2013, despite a dramatic increase in cell phone calls over the same period.
    • C.J. Driscoll & Associates released a new multi-client marketing research study covering U.S. fleet operators with Mobile Resource Management systems and services. The 2013-14 Survey of Fleet Operator Interest in MRM Systems and Services assesses fleet operator interest in GPS fleet management, driver behavior management, and GPS-equipped handset/portable solutions for managing mobile workers. The study was partially funded by 14 companies, including major cellular carriers, GPS fleet management solution providers, suppliers of driver behavior management systems, and other leading telematics suppliers to the fleet market. The following are among the key findings of the study: More than three-fourths of the fleets that are using a GPS fleet management system reported a high level of satisfaction with their system and two-thirds reported that they have recouped their investment in the system. Another study finding indicates participating fleets that have never used a GPS fleet management system expect to deploy a system in the next 12-18 months.
    • MapQuest, which hasn’t gotten the publicity of Google Maps or Apple, recently rolled out a new mapping application, which was a nine-month project. The new mapping app features layers of information “around” a user such as coffee, bars, gas, banks and parking. The new app gets traffic updates on the fly and works more like a standard GPS system, according to published reports. MapQuest is still the number 3 mobile map provider, which is a quiet stat given how long the company has been around in the location industry.
  • Google Rolls out Maps Engine Pro for Small Businesses

    Google Rolls out Maps Engine Pro for Small Businesses

    Google-Map-O

    Google Maps aren’t just for finding directions for consumers. The company is courting small businesses to grab a greater market share and provide differentiation from its competitors. In a slow news month, it appears Google, the 800-pound gorilla in the location industry, has a strong start in business markets.

    Google’s recent decision to roll out Maps Engine Pro, its software that allows small business to use the company’s location tools to create maps from location databases, is a solid step in the business-to-business market. However, the company also said there will be a mobile application for Maps Engine Pro, called Google Maps Engine, which will allow small businesses and users to edit and create maps while mobile.

    Companies can use the app to optimize personnel and assets, build mapping apps, and create internal and external maps that use data layers to make business decisions. Depending on licensing, Maps Engine Pro costs $5 per user, per month — or $50 per user, per year.

    One reason to roll out the enterprise product: Brian McClendon, vice president of Google Maps, said that there are 1 billion monthly active Google Maps users, making the business product familiar to companies who want to plot location data.

    Magnetic Indoor Positioning? 

    Although much-hyped in the last two years, most indoor positioning has been powered by both GPS and Wi-Fi positioning in most tests and rollouts worldwide. However, a startup called IndoorAtlas, which recently opened an office in Sunnyvale, California, and partnered with Finnish grocery chain Fonella, according to published reports, is using magnetic technology via compass chips in smartphones.

    Rather than using Wi-Fi signals to triangulate a device’s location, IndoorAtlas tracks differences in the Earth’s magnetic field to pinpoint location within a building. The magnetic field is all around most objects and animals. On the company website, this tidbit is found: “Many animals utilize local variations in the Earth’s magnetic field to find their way around. These magnetic variations commonly exist inside buildings as well. Many sources can contribute to these variations including Earth’s magnetic field, and the structures of the building. Modern smartphones can sense and record these magnetic variations to map indoor locations.”

    IndoorAtlas’ technology doesn’t require additional infrastructure like wireless access points, so the technology can be used by retailers. Other markets include search and rescue, museum tours, and a navigation aid for disabled people.

    Location Companies Going After Higher End Markets As Commoditization Settles In      

    As location technology, specifically GPS, becomes more of a commodity as many industry observers say, companies are looking at higher-margin market segments. For instance, Garmin, which has seen the portable navigation device market decrease, has been focusing on more expensive and specialized products.

    While still a big business for Garmin, PNDs’ market share has been eroded by tablets, smartphones — and even expensive installed telematics systems, which have grown with the connected vehicle’s rise.

    Garmin has offered several different types of high-end watches for swimmers, pilots, runners, golfers and others in the outdoor market. The newest entry is a $450 watch called Tactix, which any Navy SEAL could love. It features an altimeter, barometer, and jumpmaster software for airborne operations, and it’s even waterproof to a 50-meter depth.

    LBS Insider to Cover CES in January

    LBS Insider will be on site in Las Vegas to cover the huge Consumer Electronics Show. At CES, the connected vehicle market continues to be showcased. In published reports, Scott Keogh, Audi USA president, said that the company will make announcements about Audi Connect at the show.

    T-Mobile US provides 3G connectivity to Audi’s Connect service in the United States through an embedded SIM in the car’s dash. T-Mobile’s plan, which includes Wi-Fi for as many as eight devices, is offered to new and existing owners of cars equipped with Audi Connect. It costs $450 for data services for 30 months — or users pay $30 per month if they select the month-to-month option. Some of the features includes access weather, real-time news and fuel prices. Both Google Earth and Google Voice are offered.

    At CES, the LBS market has been de-emphasized by wireless carriers in the past three years.  Instead, most location-related panels have been dedicated to connected vehicles.

  • New Ways to Track Mobile Users

    New Ways to Track Mobile Users

    Companies like Drawbridge indentify a user's devices across platforms.
    Companies like Drawbridge indentify a user’s devices across platforms.

    In the location business, we used to talk about tracking — namely, vehicle tracking.  We stopped using the term as it sounded too close to Big Brotherism. Vehicle and employee tracking is much more prevalent today, but we have delicately renamed it “mobile resource management.”

    Tracking is back in the news, and it is rightfully being called what it is, tracking. You may have seen the New York Times article about new ways people are being tracked via their mobile phones and other devices.

    Tracking mobile phone behavior hasn’t been prevalent, because mobile apps don’t use cookies, the small files that can watch our behavior on our desktops and laptops. This has changed. Now Internet advertising companies like Drawbridge are using powerful algorithms to analyze anonymous browsing patterns on devices and look at the dates and times, location and websites visited, and user activities on sites. The companies can determine that a mobile phone, home computer, work computer and tablet belong to the same person.  The devices do not need to be connected for the match to be made. In a household full of people and devices, these companies can even distinguish among users.

    This isn’t in its infancy. One company alone says it has matched 1.5 billion devices this way. The incentive of the industry is to arm advertisers with behavior knowledge to enable hyper-personalized ads on the device that makes the most sense. The ad may be delivered on one device based on a person’s activity on another device. For instance, Greg is looking at a website for basketball shoes at his computer at work. He goes home and gets an ad for those shoes on his tablet, and it maybe a hyper-local ad for a store where he often shops. The ad may come at a time that he is primed to shop, on the device he will likely be using then. Mobile advertisers that are  exploiting this data include Drawbridge, Flurry, Velti and SessionM. Companies that are advertising based on this mobile tracking data include Ford Motor, American Express, Fidelity, Expedia, Quiznos and Groupon.

    As we know, phone data is not the sole interest of commercial companies. It is of interest to the government as well. This month, the National Security Agency (NSA) admitted that it was tracking the location of the U.S. population. Between 2010 and 2011, the NSA used cell towers to locate Americans. The NSA claims that it obtained the data, but didn’t use it.

    What’s next? There is something left that mobile advertisers still haven’t figured out. They have no sure way to know the results of an ad placed on a mobile phone. Has the person viewed the ad and gone to the website on their computer, or walked into a store and placed an order?  It probably won’t be a mystery for long.

  • Watershed Moment Approaching for the Connected Vehicle

     

    A watershed moment may be approaching for the connected vehicle market. The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) is about to start on the path towards mandating connected vehicle technology. Interest in the market is not limited to a few countries; last week I moderated a GPS World webinar on the connected vehicle that drew registrants from 40 countries.  Other news in the industry includes Sprint removing Sprint Navigation and TeleNav GPS Navigator from bundled data and data add-on plans. A new report shows it has become more expensive to acquire app users. And despite no longer being preinstalled on iOS devices, Google Maps is doing pretty well with Apple iOS users.

    During our GPS World connected vehicle webinar, held September 19, I noticed differences in how the audience characterized the connected vehicle. The connected vehicle enables information to be exchanged with other vehicles, devices and/or road infrastructure to provide safety, mobility and consumer functionality. The devices that are used with the connected vehicle can be nomadic (phone, tablet, personal navigation devices), vehicle embedded and aftermarket devices. Communication options are currently cellular, Wi-Fi or DSRC/WAVE.

    Regulation Pushing Connected Vehicle Forward. In a recent statement, the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) asserts that connected vehicle technology “can transform the nation’s surface transportation safety, mobility and environmental performance.” NHTSA is expected to start rulemaking on the connected vehicle later this year, which could result in a connected car industry mandate in the U.S. While it could take five or more years for final rules and several more years for rules to take effect, it would be a transformative event. “In six years, I expect to see vehicles widely using the technology,” said Scott McCormick of the Connected Vehicle Trade Association. “Vehicle manufacturers are eager for connectivity in vehicles, but need to understand the regulations that will be in play. This hasn’t been idle time, as vehicle makers are ahead of the game and have already embedded some connected vehicle technology into vehicles that can later be activated.”

    The commercial fleet market has been the first adopter of connected vehicle technology as efficiencies provide cost savings, but the automotive market is poised to catch up. “Fleets now have access to actionable intelligence from the field,” said Andrew Maliszewski of Micronet, as well as an industry consultant. “Business decisions are now being made from data, including fuel levels, driver behaviors, vehicle performance, weather and traffic conditions, and even real-time trailer connect/disconnect events.”

    Ownership of Data is Tricky.  Some of the data that is produced inside a vehicle will be of great value to marketers. It will reveal personal information, including your driving habits, where you go, and how you react to in-vehicle marketing. David Jumpa of Airbiquity asserts, “There is uncertainty on who will own the data, but the sensory data, such as how you brake and accelerate, would be owned by the vehicle OEM.” When polled, many listeners of the webinar opined that content and app providers, and not vehicle OEMs or data infrastructure companies, will own personal data generated.

    Making Money, or Not. The technology of the connected vehicle market hasn’t been easy, but it has been much simpler than finding the revenue models that will support companies in this market. “In the past, the vehicle market would use a tier-one manufacturer to deliver the entertainment solution, including maps and routing,” said Scott Sedlik of Inrix. “That isn’t the case now, and multiple suppliers work together and are also having to carry the risk that the vehicle OEMs had solely carried.” Some of the content and app providers are making money; others are figuring out the right business model. One of the questions that remain is whether the OEMs will pay for in-vehicle services and content. This is a pivot point of business, Sedlik adds.

    Mobile App Marketing Cost at High. For brands that proactively market their apps, the cost of acquiring a loyal user increased in July to $1.80 according to Fiksu’s Cost per Loyal User Index. This is a jump of 30 cents from June, falling just a penny short of the December 2011 price of $1.81. Fiksu attributes the cost rise to brands leveraging Facebook’s mobile app ads, which target consumers based on app and games access on smartphones.

    Mobile Map Usage. More than 60 percent of iOS users accessed Apple Maps at least once during the previous 30 days, reports Mobidia. That isn’t too surprising given that it comes installed on the phone. However, 20 percent of iOS users accessed Google Maps during the same period — impressive, since the user has to go to the effort of installing the software. Google Maps usage is heavy, although not as heavy as Apple Maps use.  55 percent of iOS users that use Google Maps, use it weekly; 80 percent of Apple Maps users use it weekly. Not bad, Google.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Nokia’s Mapping Business Has Options, Issues

    Kevin Dennehy
    Kevin Dennehy

    In the wake of Microsoft’s recent purchase of Nokia’s mobile phone business, the Nokia unit formerly known as Navteq, and now know as HERE, has opportunities, but also a hard-to-guess future. At least one industry analyst believes that Navteq/HERE was not included in the Microsoft deal because it was too expensive.

    “While much ado has been made of the Nokia/Microsoft deal in the press, I was interested in why Mr. Softy did not acquire Navteq/HERE with the other assets of interest. There are several possibilities to explain this omission,” said Mike Dobson, TeleMapics president.  “First, it could be the case that Nokia did not want to sell Navteq/HERE. Second, it is possible that Microsoft had no interest in acquiring its current map database supplier. Third, maybe the price for Navteq/HERE was too high. My vote is for number three.”

    Dobson said that Nokia clearly would like to sell HERE, as it does not fit with the company’s profile, growth strategies, or competencies, on a going-forward basis.  “Just as Navteq was not a good fit for Nokia in 2007, it is now a less comfortable fit for the reconstituted company, which is being focused on network infrastructure services,” he said.  “Conversely, I suspect Microsoft was ambivalent about a deal that included [Navteq/HERE].”                           Under the proposed Nokia/Microsoft deal, Nokia’s mapping assets are to be licensed for a four-year term by Microsoft, which gives them time to firm up their future strategy for spatial data.  Note that the price of the license for the mapping products was not part of the $7.1 billion transaction, Dobson said.

    “Why was Mr. Softy gun shy? First, I suspect that Microsoft concluded that owning a mapping company was not core to any of Microsoft’s current initiatives, including its bumbling approach to location and connected car services,” Dobson said.  “Next, Microsoft has enough problems competing with companies in its distribution chain, without adding another business that would serve to complicate its relationship with manufacturers and resellers. Of course, all of these objections could have been overcome if the price was right, it wasn’t, but that does not mean it won’t be in the future.”

    Where Does Navteq Go from HERE?

    Dobson says Navteq, Nokia and HERE are in a world of pain. “While the ‘new’ Nokia will have the ability to fund all of the development to enhance the Navteq database that it has deferred over the past five years, I think it is unlikely to do so. Nokia does not appear to understand the fundamentals of the location market, the automotive navigation market, or the connected car market,” Dobson said.  “Perhaps most importantly, they have lagged Google in evolving their map compilation process into a modern, synergistic, information sourcing engine. The Navteq approach to crowdsourcing hinders their potential speed to market with updated map information and has allowed Google to reach parity with Navteq in some areas, while exceeding it in quality in other markets.”

    The future battleground in the location markets will devolve into a scarp for ownership of the last mile, Dobson said.  “The type of thinking that believes that the ‘last mile’ is all about road geometry, simply does not understand the problem. People want to know that the map will support their journey to a destination, but they are focused on the destination and the various opportunities that it presents,” he said.  “For example, the mobile phone has promoted an egocentric view of the world focused on ‘what’s around me?’  Providing the spatial detail of the total environment that surrounds the user is key to winning the last mile battle and I do not see Nokia having the assets to participate in this market.”

    Nokia announced that HERE, at the recent Frankfurt Motor Show, partnered with Mercedes Benz, Continental Corporation and Magneti Marelli to offer connected products and services beyond navigation.  Nokia believes that connecting the car to the cloud is one of the biggest opportunities for the automotive industry.

    “Whether the concept of the connected car offers Nokia a lifeline is unclear. Connectivity may suck the spatial data out of the car and into phone based systems,” Dobson said.  “Others would argue that smart cars will require a detailed, highly accurate database of spatial information to manage the safety systems in the automobile of the future.  I’m not wise enough to predict the future, but I think the Nokia is going to have a rocky road with Navteq/HERE.”

    Dobson said that it is interesting that Microsoft has loaned Nokia 1.5 billion Euros in three tranches of convertible bonds.  “The bonds will be redeemed and netted against the deal proceeds, although the loan is not conditional on the deal closing, nor is Nokia obligated to exercise its option,” he said.  “However, it would appear that Mr. Softy and Nokia are not quite through with each other:  if Nokia exercises these options, Microsoft will become a shareholder in Nokia.”

  • The Connected Vehicle

    Sponsored by: Hemisphere GNSS
    Original Broadcast Date:     Thursday, September 19, 2013
    Moderator: Janice Partyka, Wireless LBS Insider editor
    Speakers: David Jumpa, Chief Revenue Officer, Airbiquity; Scott McCormick, President, Connected Vehicle Trade Association; Andrew Maliszewski, Executive VP, Micronet; Scott Sedlik, VP Product and Marketing, Inrix
    Summary: The biggest announcements and the most interesting news at the three big wireless/electronics shows in 2013 have all concerned the connected car. Location is a core technology.  How will the connected vehicle market evolve?  Will there be similarities to the more advanced fleet market?  Providers of navigation, mapping, traffic, middleware, search, points of interest and mobile advertising all have key roles to play. How will the complexity of personalization and extras make it difficult to deliver products and service? The pace will only accelerate. Sort through the multiple issues and get your roadmap to the future with Janice Partyka and a panel of industry experts.

  • Mobile Resource Market Shows Largest Growth in Location Industry

    Mobile resource management has never been a sexy market full of buzz and excitement — we are talking tracking trailers and containers. However, it is on pace to see double-digit growth through 2020. Led by a handful of companies in local fleet, long haul, cellular and trailer tracking, MRM has never faced ups and downs like other location market segments. In fact, acquisitions and growth appear to be in the future for this market segment.

    With more than 5.7 million tracking units nationwide, and 9 million more expected to be sold by 2015, the mobile resource management market continues to be one of the steadiest, and profitable, location businesses.

    In one of the bigger MRM deals earlier this month, Danaher Corp. purchased Garden City, California-based Teletrac, which was owned by Vector Capital. Teletrac, which offers a cloud-based software as a service (SaaS), has units installed in more than 200,000 vehicles in 87 countries.

    In terms of segments within MRM, the local fleet market continues to be the largest, according to Clem Driscoll, president of CJ Driscoll and Associates, who is completing a multi-client study of U.S. fleet operators that is sponsored by two major wireless carriers.  Local fleet operators had more than 3 million units installed in 2012. In 2000, local fleet companies had about 250,000 units installed, according to Driscoll.

    Another growing MRM market segment include cell-phone-based systems with 1 million units.  Long-haul trucking and trailer tracking both have less than 1 million units installed in 2012. The major players in long-haul trucking markets have included Qualcomm, PeopleNet and XRS (Xata), but Qualcomm just announced that it is selling its fleet management and tracking business Omnitracs to Vista Equity Partners for $800 million in cash.

    Driscoll says the largest GPS fleet management company is Fleetmatics, which recently went public, raising $94.3 million. The company has 331,000 units installed worldwide, and had $127.5 million in revenue last year.

    Driscoll has identified several MRM trends: hardware prices are declining, MRM service providers are bundling the hardware; leveling off of equipment purchases for local fleet markets as suppliers transition to third-generation devices; increased integration with Android; smartphones and tablets; and more acquisitions.

    Speaking of acquisitions, the past year was a busy one for MRM. Telogis bought Maptuit and NavTrak. CalAmp bought Wireless Matrix, which is a GPS-cellular tracking company.

    For long-haul trucking acquisitions, the biggest deals came from Trimble, which purchased TMW Systems, ALK Technologies and GEOTrac, an oil and gas monitoring company.

    In Europe, the United Kingdom and France could see growth, but Spain has economic problems. Germany still is a strong long haul market, Driscoll says. In Asia, there should be 9 million potential units sold in the next few years, with China being the dominant player. Korea and Japan are maturing markets.

    Overall, by 2020, MRM could achieve the same level of penetration as the smartphone market.  Today’s smartphone may be the ultimate telematics equipment, and future MRM equipment of choice, as the automotive OEMs have found out by listening to their consumers, Driscoll said.

    Google Maps Already Using Waze 

    In other location industry news, Google Maps this week is using Waze real-time traffic reports on its app for Apple iOS and Android, according to a blog post from Google. The announcement constitutes the first significant use of the Waze app since Google purchased the Israeli startup for $1 billion in June.

    While Google Maps users will be able to use reports about accidents, construction and road closures, Waze consumers will be able to get access to Google search and Street View. According to published reports, more than 15,000 new map editors joined the Waze editing community this month, which is a 43 percent month-over-month increase.

    Intel Shuts Down Telmap

    Late last month, after our LBS Insider deadline, Intel announced it was shutting down Telmap, an Israel-based company it acquired in 2011 for a reported $120 million. The move signals the end of Intel’s navigation business, which had hoped to offer end-user tools and white label technology for developers.

    Telmap employed 150 people at its development center in Herzliya, Israel, and had dozens of other employees at various Intel branches throughout Europe and the United States. Telmap rolled out a free navigation app called M8, which was launched earlier this year. The app drew revenue from advertising and was marketed to wireless carriers for rebranding.

    In Israel, Orange, Cellcom and Pelephone, the country’s largest wireless carriers, all use Telmap’s white-labeled product, according to published reports.

    According to published reports, some of the Telmap employees will be placed in other positions within Intel Israel. The reports said that Intel was too late with its free app and was way behind crowdsourced traffic providers such as Waze.

    Telmap, founded in 2000, was viewed as an up-and-coming player in the location industry. It supported wireless carriers mainly outside of the United States such as Orange FT Group, SingTel, MTS, Vodafone, Vodacom, SFR, Telefonica-02 and others. Its U.S. partners included Nokia (Navteq), MapQuest and Inrix.

    Is the Location Industry Conference Dead?

    After working overseas for nearly a year, I have noticed that there are not a lot of industry events to cover, particularly pure location conferences. There may be a connected vehicle panel at the Consumer Electronics Show or a CTIA trade show.

    However, the location-centric conference appears to have died in the wake of industry consolidation (and Google’s giving navigation away for free). Replacing these conferences are connected vehicle and insurance telematics conferences that feature an occasional wireless, or LBS, panel.

  • Google Disappoints with Mobile Ad Revenue, Apple Shines

    Janice Partyka
    Janice Partyka

    It has been a busy month. Apple is getting help turning around its embarrassing mapping debacle with an acquisition of HopStop and Locationary. Latitude, which enables location sharing and check-ins, is being sunsetted by Google, as it adds that functionality to Google Plus. Twitter acquired Spindle to enable real-time location recommendations. Nokia, leading the charge in augmented reality, added LiveSight sight recognition into apps. And mobile advertising, the life blood of many location apps, is exceeding expectations for social media, but is disappointing with mobile search.

    In a week when Facebook’ mobile advertising revenue far exceeded analyst expectations and garnered 41 percent of the company’s revenue, Google’s advertising woes are particularly interesting. Second-quarter revenue results from Google indicate that mobile devices are depressing its online advertising prices at a rate greater than expected. Search-ad prices have been declining since late 2011, but Google’s numbers are still surprising low. The average cost-per-click rate, the price Google gets paid by advertisers, is down 6 percent from a year ago. This was double the drop expected by analysts. The decline is due in part from the lower cost-per-click on sites that are accessed from mobile devices than those seen from PCs.

    Earlier this year, I wrote about Google’s move to accelerate advertisers’ shift to mobile. The company overhauled its AdWords platform in February in an attempt to reach consumers across all device screens. This required advertisers to pay for mobile ads, even if they only wish to reach consumers via the desktop. Google saw this as a way to more revenue and insisted that an integrated platform would also benefit advertisers. The results have been disappointing and the switch to a mobile world may not be entirely good for Google.

    Whatever it Takes. Apple is hard at work overhauling its mapping. Apple has confirmed its acquisition of Locationary and HopStop. Locationary solves the problem of out-of-date points of interest and business data with a platform that collects and verifies crowd-sourced and other data. It also checks the actual physical location of businesses and other places. HopStop offers a door-to-door navigation app that includes transit, walking, biking, and taxi directions in more than 500 cities worldwide.

    Tweeting Spindle. Twitter has acquired Spindle, whose mobile search application leverages the social graph to deliver real-time local recommendations. The app harvests social media activity, including location and time of day, and identifies nearby restaurants, retail and other places in the vicinity. In March, Spindle added push notifications based on user preferences. Twitter has closed down the Spindle offering and is certain to repurpose it.

    Airport Trip Timing. Traffic is only one of the delays that can be encountered on a trip. Not knowing the expected wait time at airport security frustrates travelers. TripAdvisor has acquired GateGuru to provide security-time estimates, gate locations, and real-time flight status. The company collects information from a mix of user-generated content and data from airports. The offering also includes weather forecasts, detailed maps, and information on terminal amenities.

    Augmented Reality at Nokia. Augmented reality (AR) is a leap forward for mapping and is beginning to leave the realm of emerging technology and entering mainstream. Adding AR to maps creates an innate experience in which one can “see” a place with text or a superimposed image. Nokia, a leader in augmented reality, has added LiveSight, an integrated sight recognition technology into the Here suite of apps for some Window phones. Users can enter LiveSight mode, which will scan the surrounding area and pull up relevant information about nearby locations, like addresses, phone numbers, and ratings.Virtual signs are attached to buildings as viewed through the camera display. This can all be accessed off-line.

    Augmented Job Searching. One novel app is Nokia’s JobLens, which adds augmented reality to job hunting. Users can visually see jobs around them through the phone’s camera lens. A number of search filters help narrow down jobs, including filtering jobs that have a connection with one’s social networks. JobLens is integrated with LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Windows Live. Data is provided by partners that include LinkedIn, Indeed, Salary.com and Zillow. When a user finds a job that she wants to apply for, the application will then walk her through the application process and keep track of her progress. Will the job pay in fictitious currency?

  • Apple Maps Another Foray, Still Needs Google

    Kevin Dennehy
    Kevin Dennehy

    By Kevin Dennehy

    Trying to shake off last year’s mapping debacle, Apple recently bought two companies, HopStop and Locationary.  The purchases, whose financial details were not disclosed, get Apple rooted once more in the location business; how firmly those roots prove to be, and how well they serve the company against arch-rival Google, time will tell.

    Apple has been stockpiling companies and mapping software since last year’s introduction of Apple Maps on iOS devices, which turned out to be a big fiasco. 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. The fallout from the Maps debacle was swift.  Apple fired Richard Williamson, who oversaw the company’s Maps team, according to Bloomberg.  The company put pressure on Apple partner TomTom to update mapping data and consulting with third-party mapping experts.

    The fiasco proved how important maps and navigation are to users of mobile phones.  Industry experts noted two further points:

    • Maps are extremely hard to do, and
    • Maps are really important for a major platform to own, rather than rent from Google.

    Hopping Forward. The HopStop app provides directions to users in 600 urban areas, with an emphasis on mass transit — real-time transit maps and schedules —  as well as pedestrian- and bicycle-oriented guidance.

    HopStop’s purchase may be Apple’s answer to Google’s recent purchase of Waze.  HopStop traffic data, like Waze, is based on updates from people using the application; that is, crowd-sourced data.

    Staying With It. The Locationary acquisition constitutes a further measure to keep current, going beyond the pressure Apple put on partner TomTom.  Locationary checks on and seeks to eliminate out-of-date points of interest and business data with a platform that collects and verifies crowd-sourced and other data. It also checks the actual physical location of businesses and other places.

    Coming Inside. To top off the company’s location awareness, Apple is even getting into the hotly-contested indoor positioning and navigation space, spending $20 million for Silicon Valley start-up WiFiSLAM in late March. According to published reports, WiFiSLAM can pinpoint a user’s indoor location to within 8 feet, using Wi-Fi. Apple rival Google already has been in the indoor positioning and navigation market, mapping shopping malls, airports and sports venues in several countries.

    Google Maps Now Major Apple Feature

    Speaking of the strange bedfellows, Google recently rolled out an iOS version of Google Maps for use on the iPad. For the last nine months, iPad users who wanted to use Google Maps have been required to use one designed for the iPhone, according to published reports.  Google also updated the iPhone version of Google Maps.

    Both the iPhone and iPad mapping software feature live traffic updates during turn-by-turn navigation.  The app includes live incident reports, road closure information, construction sites, accident reports and other features.  Apparently, Apple users won’t get the rerouting capability that Android folks will get, according to published reports.

    Real Power. The cool factor, and one that industry experts believe is the real power of location-based services, is an “explore” function that both Apple and Android have with Google Maps. This proximity feature allows users to find nearby restaurants, shopping areas, gasoline and other sites. Google also introduced a rating system for the iOS application that allows users to rate restaurants and other businesses.

    The Google Maps for iOS also has turn-by-turn directions for bicyclists, featuring more than 330,000 miles of bike paths and trails worldwide.

    Previous versions of Google Maps, which were designed for the iPad, were removed by Apple last September.  Apple, to replace the version, brought out the infamous mapping software that featured many errors.

     

  • Google’s $1.1 Billion Purchase of Waze Under FTC Scrutiny

    Google’s $1.1 Billion Purchase of Waze Under FTC Scrutiny

    Kevin Dennehy
    Kevin Dennehy

    In a year of ho-hum location deals, or the lack of any, the recent Google purchase of Waze for more than $1 billion is a big one. In fact, readers of GPS World magazine’s LBS Insider would have to go back to the summer of 2007, when TomTom purchased Tele Atlas and Nokia bought Navteq, to find an industry acquisition as big as this one.

    The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing Google’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Israel-based mapping startup Waze, according to published reports.  The big issue is that while Waze’s revenue was too low to trigger automatic review by the FTC, it may have hundreds of millions of users worldwide.

    The fact that Google’s acquisition of Waze has caught the FTC’s attention is not unusual, said Mike Dobson, TeleMapics president, who authors a location industry blog at www.telemapics.com. “Google, in an attempt to speed the acquisition, declared that the assets of Waze based in the United States are worth less than the $70.9 million that requires an antitrust review. Google maintains, and I agree, that the majority of the [intellectual property] for which they were willing to pay $1 billion was created in Israel, where it is currently located, and in that location it continues to be revised and enhanced,” he said.

    One of the supposed reasons, which were publicized in media reports, is that the deal with Facebook fell through because the social media giant wanted to relocate the Waze development activities to the U.S. and the Israel-based company declined.

    Google’s purchase of Waze ends months of rumors and stops other suitors, including Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, from moving in on the mapping startup. Google has said that its mapping technology will be incorporated into Waze.

    The Waze deal may strengthen Google, but won’t be the deciding factor on whether it has an unfair advantage in the [location] market, said Marc Prioleau, president of Prioleau Advisors. “They will have that regardless of Waze. I am not sure the criteria for the FTC, but I think Waze is just a spark to trigger a look at Google’s mapping position overall,” he said. “The FTC will have a hard time making the case that Google dominates the industry when Google can point to market share for Apple Maps, Nokia/Here [through its own sites as well as Bing, Amazon, Facebook and others] and even MapQuest, which stubbornly hangs on to a high market share with the over-50 demographic.”

    When it comes down to it, it is all about money. “It appears that the FTC’s preliminary interest in the Google acquisition of Waze is in determining if the U.S.-based assets are worth more than $70.9 million, and whether or not Google’s position regarding the Waze IP being located in Israel is justified,” Dobson said. “Many would argue that a considerable portion of the value of the Waze IP affects consumers in the United States, resides on cell phones of users in the United States, and has a functional impact in the United States beyond the $70.9 million that Google is claiming. Functional impact is a difficult issue, but since Waze generates little income, Google is probably in a good position here.”

    Dobson said that other pundits are commenting that the problem here is that Noam Bardin, Waze CEO, described Google as its only competition during a recent press conference. “Oh, how unusual, someone selling their company trying to increase the value of the company,” he said. “Has everyone forgotten about Nokia and TomTom? Does anyone really think they are incapable of competing with Google, Waze or the combination of both companies?”

    Google Made Strategic Decision Not to Buy Tele Atlas and Navteq                          

    Dobson said that, more troubling for the FTC and other antitrust interests, is this:  If Google wanted to monopolize the mapping world, why did it not choose to bid (or counterbid) when Navteq and Tele Atlas were sold in 2007?

    “I think the answer to this question is quite plain. Google did not participate in either acquisition because it had tried both companies’ data and found that the content quality and spatial coverage was not quite what Google had set as goals when developing its strategy for mapping. Instead, Google built its own ‘map machine’ and has managed to out-innovate either of these companies over the last several years,” Dobson said. “In addition, both Nokia and TomTom have fallen on hard times, not because of Google’s success, but because both companies overpaid for the assets they acquired, just before a worldwide economic downturn. Reduced budgets (for research and compilation) at TomTom and Nokia have had a lot to do with Google’s success in the mapping world.”

    The big deal in Google’s interest in Waze lies in the success that the mapping startup has had in capturing traffic information, as well as how it has attracted a large user community willing to contribute traffic data, Dobson said.

    “I doubt that Google will find that the map coverage provided by Waze has data they have not already mapped and mapped more exhaustively than Waze. However, it is somewhat camp to be an ‘anybody but Google’ fan boy and I suspect conspiracy theories about the acquisition will abound,” Dobson said. “I doubt that the FTC will find anything actionable. If Google were to announce next week that it was acquiring Inrix, I suspect that the FTC might have a real case with real antitrust issues.”

    While Waze hasn’t generated much revenue, its real-time maps and traffic information are valuable. This value was magnified last year when Apple tried to replace Google Maps on the iPhone with a not-so-good alternative.

    Analysts are looking around at what other companies are out there as potential acquisition targets — particularly as the smartphone industry becomes even more competitive. The apps on the smartphones will need to be distinguishable, particularly the mapping systems and capability, say several analysts.

    One company that stands out as a potential acquisition target is TomTom, which is the last independent provider of digital maps, now that Navteq was gobbled up by Nokia.

    Send all of your LBS stories to [email protected].