2007 Predictions Part 3: LBS And Crowd Control.(location-based services)

Mobile-community and location-based services (LBS) are two of a kind: platforms that seem so promising on the handset but with no clear path to mass acceptance. Wireless Business Forecast simply hasn't seen convincing implementation of LBS or mobile community on phones yet, but many applications are in the wings.

For executive takes on the likely scenarios for both platform in 2007, we went to a few executives of prominent mobile start-ups: Carston Boers, president and co-founder of Flytxt; Randy Eisenman, founder and CEO of Handango; Derek Handley, CEO and co-founder of The Hyperfactory; Alfredo Narez, vice president of Air2Web; Dale Rodriguez, CTO at Air2Web; John Puterbaugh, CEO of Nellymoser; Grover Righter, vice president/business development, at Ortiva Wireless; and DP Venkatesh, CEO of mPortal.

Location, Location, Location

Is this the year LBS finally makes its mark? After all, phone-based navigation systems appeared last year from both Verizon and Garmin. Most of the newer phones have GPS embedded, although users still must elect to turn such services on. In 2006, we saw an initial attempt at folding LBS into existing applications, like search services, from InfoSpace. Handango CEO and Founder Randy Eisenman says we should expect this genre to catch on soon. "We expect the use of GPS applications to move quickly beyond general mapping and more toward true LBS," he tells us. "As smartphone manufacturers work to produce GPS-enabled devices, content providers will publish more LBS applications and people will start to use the services for social purposes like making restaurant reservations, locating friends nearby and accessing relevant coupons."

WBF Sez:

The success of LBS is pretty much tied to the evolution of local directories and search, we think. The technology starts making sense to people when they can use it as a shortcut to finding services in their physical zones and not just their zip code. Even then, we think LBS is less attractive than many people in the industry suppose.

It has a built-in creepiness to it that consumers will need to overcome, and the technology only makes sense when wrapped in with another format: mobile directories and search that are themselves just limping toward widespread use. This is a platform that will take some consumer coaxing and education to take off. It isn't a no-brainer.