MoMo London last night was standing room only for the Location Based Systems (LBS) event. Here are the things I took away from the event…

• The further strengthening of iPhone as the ‘talked about’ platform.
• The trend for many more types of application to use location as a subsidiary as opposed to primary use of the application. (e.g. Who else is playing the same music as me and where they?)
• Due to the huge number of possible locations, the lack of content for a particular location. Hence, the popularity of user generated content to fill this gap (e.g. comment on xyz at this location).
• Similarly, the lack of advert inventory for the wide number of locations (will always be so).
• Where location tagged information is available, there’s usually too much on the map. The need for map views or filters.
• Location needs to be automatically built into applications rather than something that is actioned by the user.
• Possible privacy issues of sharing location as it becomes used by the mass market.

As it happens, I am currently working on a LBS project. My personal impressions are…

• Phones are much more location capable than they were a few years ago (say compared to old N95). They have a much faster time to acquire position (due better hardware and assisted GPS) and are more accurate.
• With today’s phones, it’s possible to use location frequently and not drain the battery
• There are a lot more GPS phones being sold, especially iPhone, S60 and BlackBerry. Hence, companies are becoming happy to invest in mobile LBS projects.
• People appreciate and understand location because they have already seen it in in-car navigation. It’s less of a hard sell.
• Location produces a huge amount of information over time that, for server based solutions, creates technical challenges related to server performance, storing and searching.

Many current mobile applications rely on location being consumed at the phone. I think there are many innovative applications that can use phone location within normal web sites. This was hinted at at MoMo in that there was talk of better integration (of location related information) between web sites and phones.

Related Articles:

• Network APIs
• 5o9 Location
• LBS Market Map
• Skyhook Wireless LBS Survey
• Xtify Location Based Platform
• Google Gears Geolocation API
• Enabling Location in Applications
• Navizon Cellid Based Location
• Google Maps Mobile: How does it work?
• Location without GPS or Operator LBS
• Telit GSM GPS Python Module
• GPS Phones
• LBS at MoMo London
• Mobile Telemetry

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 10:33 am and is filed under Mobile, MoMoLondon, MoMo. Both comments and pings are currently closed.