10 mobile trends: Should you care?

6. Location-based services

Location-based services (LBS) are yet another technology that has been bordering on the big time for some time but failed to take off in the way many had hoped. Many envisioned 'find my nearest McDonald's' type services - yet enterprises have been making much more of LBS.

One of the more obvious examples of LBS on mobiles is fleet tracking and employee management - using GPS on mobiles to monitor and manage delivery drivers en route, for example, or to check on the locations of a water company's staff to make sure the nearest employee is despatched to fix a leak.

However, pundits believe that few other enterprise applications will enjoy similar success in the near future and even consumer applications could struggle.

Ten mobile trends

1. FMC
2. Salesforce automation
3. VoIP
4. Payments
5. 3.5G - HSDPA
6. Location-based services
7. TV
8. Device management
9. M2M
10. Antivirus

Dean Bubley, founder of Disruptive Analysis, told silicon.com that real-time use of location data is very limited. "You can get a certain amount based on cell ID but the main issue is there are not many handsets that have accurate location-based capabilities like GPS. There are some coming to market but they are high-end and they are niche."

While GPS is likely to make its way onto a greater number of handsets, mobile LBS services are likely to be restricted to fleet management and public sector applications in the short to medium term.

One use of location-based services may yet enter CIOs' consciousness before too long: mobile-charging dependent on location. It's an idea some operators are already using for consumers, charging a lower per minute rate when the call takes place in the home.

The operators are hoping to steal more minutes from their fixed-line rivals and stave off the threat from FMC by encouraging consumers to use their mobiles at home. Should the practice find its way to businesses it could mean a lower mobile budget for single site or single campus companies.

RATING: 2/5 - though a higher rating for certain sectors.