Location-based services mean business

Location-based services (LBS) are not just going to be big news for consumers - with the likes of friend finders and local search - but are set to play an increasingly important role in enterprise.

ABI Research's principal analyst Dominique Bonte said business applications of LBS, such as asset and vehicle tracking and workforce management, will become an important revenue generator for carriers in the future as more companies look to deploy mobile services to boost efficiency, cut costs and improve customer services.

Bonte said in a statement: "As the reliability and performance of mobile enterprise solutions improves and the concerns about maintenance costs, data protection and integrity are addressed, corporations will increasingly adopt mobile solutions and LBS applications in their daily activities."

As GSM handsets with built-in GPS receivers become more widely available, ABI expects Asia-Pacific and Europe to catch up with the US - which has been leading the charge for location services as its emergency calling regulation has resulted in ubiquitous availability of GPS-based CDMA handsets.

While the growth of LBS is good news for mobile carriers, Bonte warned there is also a risk they could become mere bandwidth providers as independent LBS app and software providers step in with offerings. Carriers should therefore open up their networks and offer cross-network interoperability to defuse this threat, said ABI.

But personal navigation will remain the most important LBS category over the next five years, according to ABI, as it provides high value and clear benefits to end users.