Appendix a – Synopsis of the Current Status and Trends for GPS Mobile Handset Technology
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Reporting on the Use of Handheld Computers and the Display/Capture of Geospatial Data Appendix A – Synopsis of the current status and trends for GPS mobile handset technology NB: The majority of this appendix is derived from GPS and Mobile Handsets Fourth Edition, Berg Insight, Gothenburg Sweden. The Berg report was purchased for purposes of this report and the document is in the possession of the Geography Division. Other sources for the information provided in this appendix include Wikipedia and communication with individuals in the industry. Introduction A major objective of our report was to evaluate the current status and future directions for the use of handheld or mobile GPS enabled devices. The main body of the report provides an analysis of how different types of devices are being used to collect and transmit positional information. A major resource in this evaluation was a current market survey GPS and Mobile Handsets Fourth Edition prepared by Berg Insight. Several references to this resource are included in the report. The purpose of this appendix is to provide a brief summary of additional findings and forecasts made by Berg Insight and other sources that may have an impact on mobile activities relating to the GSS initiative. Executive Summary from Berg Insight Mobile phones with GPS receivers have been available since the late 1990s. Technical development enabling GPS integration in mass-market handsets was driven by the FCC’s E911 emergency call mandates requiring all US mobile operators to provide high- accuracy location of emergency callers. CDMA [Code division multiple access] and iDEN [Integrated Digital Enhanced Network] operators chose to use GPS location technology for locating emergency callers that led to rapidly increasing penetration of GPS in iDEN and CDMA handsets in North America and other parts of the world where CDMA is widely deployed. Emergency call location regulation is being introduced in other regions as well….Disregarding handsets only available in Japan, as well as operator-specific variants of base-models, the total number of models that are available on the market has grown from 80 in 2008 to more than 180 at the end of 2009. Since 2008, all tier-1 vendors have started to ship GPS-enabled phones for markets worldwide….GPS-enabled handsets sales are estimated to reach about 960 million, or 60 percent of total handset shipments in 2014. Handset vendors are increasingly focusing on improving the user experience through software and applications. Especially smartphones are receiving more attention from handset manufacturers, mobile network operators, application developers and last but not least users. Smartphones are devices that support installation of native third party applications. In the past, smartphones have been more costly than featurephones, but chipset vendors and handset manufacturers are now developing low cost smartphones with unsubsidized retail prices below € 100 ($133) for launch in 2010. Smartphones costing about € 50 ($66) can be available on the market in 2014. Reporting on the Use of Handheld Computers and the Display/Capture of Geospatial Data – Appendix A Encouraged by Apple’s success, major handset vendors and several leading mobile operators have now launched on-device application stores that allow users to download applications directly to their handsets. Many of these applications have some kind of support for GPS location. GPS technology for handsets has matured, offering much better performance in terms of sensitivity, power consumption, size and price than was possible a few years ago. Support for other satellite systems such as GLONASS and Galileo will also be added over time. The first handsets with receivers for GPS and GLONASS are expected to become available in 2011 and mobile phones with Galileo compatible receivers can be expected in greater numbers in 2014 when the new system will become operational. The OMA [Open Mobile Alliance] SUPL [Secure User Plane Location] A-GPS [Assisted GPS] standard has enabled lower cost deployment of A-GPS services that ensure a better and more consistent user experience necessary for the consumer market. SUPL allows deployment of A-GPS services that reduce the time-to-first-fix, lowers power consumption and enhances the sensitivity of GPS receivers. New business models have also become possible, ranging from hosted services for operators, to services deployed by handset vendors for end-users that cannot get similar services from their network operator. Besides adding support for other satellite systems that ensures more visible satellites and incrementally better performance in urban canyons, handset vendors are also starting to adopt hybrid location technologies to improve indoor performance. These technologies combine GPS with other wireless and sensor-based technologies, including Wi-Fi positioning, accelerometers, gyroscopes or electronic compasses to gradually improve performance in challenging environments where GPS signals are extremely weak or unavailable. General Findings (From Berg Insight) • New devices blur the line between handsets and mobile computers. As high-end smartphones are being equipped with increasingly large displays and ever smaller mobile computing devices such as Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and tablet computers are being launched, it is becoming increasingly difficult to make a clear distinction between the categories. Examples of recent GPS handsets that blur the line between the device categories include the Nokia N900, a mobile computer with ARM-processor running the Linux-based Maemo 5 operating system, the LG GW990 that features an Intel Atom processor running the new MeeGo OS, as well as the Toshiba TG1 and HTC HD2 Windows Mobile smartphones with up to 4.3-inch touchscreens. • The average price for a host-based GPS chipset in high volumes reached an estimated $2.20 in 2009, down from about $2.50 in 2008. • Consumers worldwide are showing a growing interest in using their handsets for advanced services beyond basic voice and messaging applications. Handset vendors are now increasing their efforts to develop cost effective handsets that support multiple connectivity technologies and faster cellular data transfer to enable advanced connected services. 2 Reporting on the Use of Handheld Computers and the Display/Capture of Geospatial Data – Appendix A • Mobile phones are based on numerous form factors, with varying screen sizes and input methods. However, most devices can be divided into five broad form factor categories: o candybar, o slide, o clamshell, o PDA touchscreen o QWERTY keyboard handsets. • The different form factors have different restrictions on possible locations of the GPS antenna as well as distance between antenna and the GPS receiver. Devices with moving parts, such as slide and clamshell devices, pose further challenges since opening or closing the handset can affect reception quality depending on antenna placement. • First tier manufacturers of mobile GPS enabled computing/communication devices include Nokia, Samsung, LG Electronics, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Research in Motion, Apple, and HTC [which manufactured the hand held devices for Harris]. • Second tier of main stream computer manufacturers that support GPS functions include: Acer, ASUSTeK, Garmin, Dell, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard, Huawei, Kyocera Sanyo Telecom, NEC Casio Mobile Communications, Palm, Panasonic, Pantech, Sharp, Toshiba, and ZTE. • GPS technology for handsets has matured, offering much better performance in terms of sensitivity, power consumption, size and price than was possible a few years ago. • Support for other satellite systems such as GLONASS and Galileo will also be added over time. The first handsets with receivers for GPS and GLONASS are expected to become available in 2011 and mobile phones with Galileo compatible receivers can be expected in greater numbers in 2014 when the new system will become operational. • SUPL [Secure User Plane Location] allows deployment of A-GPS services that reduce the time-to-first-fix, lowers power consumption and enhances the sensitivity of GPS receivers. • The OMA SUPL A-GPS standard has enabled lower cost deployment of A-GPS services that ensure a better and more consistent user experience necessary for the consumer market. • New business models have also become possible, ranging from hosted services for operators, to services deployed by handset vendors for end-users that cannot get similar services from their network operator. • Besides adding support for other satellite systems that ensures more visible satellites and incrementally better performance in urban canyons, handset vendors are also starting to adopt hybrid location technologies to improve indoor performance. • These technologies combine GPS with other wireless and sensor-based technologies, including Wi-Fi positioning, accelerometers, gyroscopes or electronic compasses to gradually improve performance in challenging environments where GPS signals are extremely weak or unavailable. • Accelerometers that are for instance used for automatic screen rotation and tap gesture recognition are now available in more than 80 GPS handsets – nearly four times as many as in 2008. • Handset vendors are increasingly focusing on improving the user experience through software and applications. Especially smartphones are receiving more attention from 3 Reporting on the Use of Handheld Computers and the Display/Capture of Geospatial Data – Appendix A handset manufacturers, mobile network operators, application