Will Mobile Computing's Future Be Location, Location, Location?

Industry Trends Will Mobile Computing’s Future Be Location, Location, Location?

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

s mobile computing has Delaney, general manager for Pitney Several countries, such as the become more popular over Bowes MapInfo’s LBS Business Unit. Russian Federation with its Russian the past decade, experts According to Iadarola, “We’re Global Navigation Satellite System, have touted the future of seeing an overall market penetration as well as the European Union with location-based services. of less than 5 percent of all mobile Galileo, have introduced their own ALBS systems could determine devices [worldwide].” GPS-like networks. mobile users’ locations. Proponents Adoption, Delaney said, has grown By 2001, LBS applications were say they could thus enable applica- slowly because of the weak economy; becoming more sophisticated, offer- tions that would not only tell people competing investment priorities for ing advanced services such as those where they are and how best to get to potential users; and until recently, a that determine whether a user’s their destinations, but also whether lack of compelling applications. friends are nearby, said ABI Research friends are nearby, what the local Other contributing factors include principal analyst Kenneth Hyers. weather forecast is, and where busi- security and privacy concerns. nesses of interest in the area are Vendors are working to deal with Today’s marketplace located. these issues. Some industry observers Most major telecommunications The technology could also help say this will make LBS commercially providers worldwide offer LBS. companies track packages or vehi- successful quickly. However, others Numerous companies—such as cles, noted Brent Iadarola, research say the technology could take more Garmin, Magellan, and TomTom Inter- director for mobile and wireless than five years to become a main- national—sell dedicated GPS devices, technology with Frost & Sullivan, a stream technology. principally for navigation. market research firm. Several manufacturers—including “As far as the mobile industry is INSIDE LBS Nokia and Research in Motion—sell concerned, LBS is of utmost impor- For landline users, the first LBS mobile phones that provide LBS. tance as it is the key feature that systems emerged in the mid-1970s in Various chip makers manufacture differentiates a mobile device from the US and identified the location of processors that provide devices with traditional fixed devices,” said Lau- callers who dial the 9-1-1 emergency LBS functionality. For example, Qual- rent Perche, head of solutions for phone number. comm makes the gpsOne chipset for strategy and marketing at telecom- The first mobile LBS application cell phones, noted Leslie Presutti, the munications vendor Alcatel-Lucent. was the US Department of Defense’s company’s director of GPS product With this in mind, telecommu- NAVSTAR Global Positioning System, management. nications, device, and software a navigation-oriented project that Many software vendors—such companies throughout the world have began in the early 1970s, went fully as Google—offer applications that invested large amounts of money in operational with all 24 satellites in utilize location-related information, developing technologies and acquir- 1995, and was made fully available primarily to provide basic navigation ing businesses that would let them for civilian use in 2000. functionality. provide LBS. GPS’s initial consumer deployment These companies’ products and However, despite the technology’s was the Magellan Corp.’s 1989 release services work together to provide enormous promise, it has not taken of a handheld receiver to help with location-based services, as Figure 1 off in the marketplace, said Larry user navigation. shows.

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Texas at Arlington. Downloaded on April 25,2010 at 03:01:13 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. Location content Under GPS’s hood provider Most LBS is based on GPS or similar systems. Each of a system’s satellites 8 transmits low-power, ultra-high-fre- quency, line-of-sight radio signals. 9 When a GPS-enabled phone, vehi- Driving cle, or other host connects to three or directions Location-based more satellites, the system analyzes applications factors such as signal timing and strength and then uses triangulation 7 to determine the device’s location Nearest restaurant Wireless based on its distance and direction network 10 12 1 from the satellites. Location- nding service 11 2 Location-based Augmenting GPS 4 service Because GPS-like systems use low- 6 power signals, to avoid interference with ground-based radar, they don’t penetrate buildings or mountains 3 5 well. This can cause accuracy prob- Sales Mobile lems in some areas. force location Therefore, LBS devices frequently provider augment GPS with other technologies, such as the national and regional Dif- Figure 1. Diagram shows how various products and services work together to provide ferential GPS Systems throughout the location-based services. world. The Wide Area Augmentation System serves just the Western The service provider can perform to improve accuracy if the host device Hemisphere. the necessary computations on its can work with the technology. These systems, in essence, access servers. However, as mobile devices Assisted GPS. Today’s GPS- ground-based reference stations— have become more powerful, their enabled devices often don’t have the whose exact locations are already CPUs have increasingly been han- processing power to do the calcula- known—to measure inaccuracies in dling the processing. tions necessary to determine their GPS readings. The systems then send Skyhook has LBS software that location. corrective information to make GPS determines location via the triangu- In this case, the LBS systems use readings more accurate. lation of cellular and Wi-fi signals, Assisted GPS. They send GPS- and Cellular or Wi-fi triangulation. Cel- without using GPS. Apple’s iPhone and cell-based location information via lular systems can provide location iPod Touch include the software. a cellular or Wi-fi link to a service services via triangulation based on a Other companies are also explor- provider’s assistance server. phone’s distance from the cell towers ing this approach. For example, The server then helps calculate the to which it connects at a given time. Google’s My Location service for location and transmits the informa- Wireless systems can also employ mobile devices, currently in beta, tion to the device. triangulation to determine a user’s uses the company’s database of Skyhook’s XPS. Skyhook Wireless’ location based on a device’s distance cell tower positions to triangulate Hybrid Positioning System (XPS) from Wi-fi access points. locations, noted software engineer software triangulates data from Wi- These approaches determine dis- Mike Chu, who is working on the fi access points and combines it with tance via calculations based on signal project. information from GPS and cellular strength. Google has also introduced a My capabilities to provide LBS. Systems can execute these tech- Location version that triangulates Wi- Leveraging GPS and Wi-fi capabili- niques by themselves or, to improve fi signals. ties yields LBS readings faster than accuracy, with each other or also with With the Google and Skyhook ser- using GPS alone, reducing response GPS. vices, the software will also use GPS times from up to a minute to just a

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few seconds. With additional data are on an online map. platforms. Transforming the software points, the system doesn’t have to use Developers can use the free Google so that it can work with other applica- less reliable and more calculation- Geolocation API to create their own tions is taking time. intensive approaches to determine applications using the company’s location. location-related data. Interoperability Skyhook’s use of many data read- Another increasingly popular According to Frost & Sullivan’s Iad- ings and database of precise locations approach links LBS and the mobile arola, carrier interoperability issues for about 50 million Wi-fi access Web browser. will delay LBS infrastructure rollouts. points adds accuracy to the process. For example, Skyhook offers For example, Verizon Wireless users In fact, XPS is accurate to within its Loki Wi-fi-based LBS plug-in for can’t currently employ a buddy-finder 10 to 20 meters, according to com- Mozilla browsers. Loki lets users application to locate a friend who’s on pany chief technology officer Nick check maps to find their locations and the Sprint Nextel network. Brachet. the locations of nearby businesses This is because there is no Skyhook is working with chip that have Loki-enabled Web sites. real-time mechanism to share geo- makers—including Broadcom, CSR, Mozilla plans to integrate Loki into spatial information between carriers’ and SiRF Technology—to include XPS its Firefox 3.1 browser. networks. capabilities in their mobile-device Mozilla’s Geode is a Firefox add-on Until LBS data use is standardized processors, said Chris Hazelton, an that provides similar services but with between services, said ABI Research’s analyst for The 451 Group, a market more privacy options. With Geode, Hyers, interoperability will be a research firm. when a website requests users’ loca- concern. The W3C’s Geolocation Specifi- cation, which Geode works with, is a potential standard but currently Several issues, such as security and privacy is just an informal proposal with no concerns, have contributed to location-based adoption timetable. services’ slow adoption. The specification would define an open API that provides applications with access to a host device’s location, determined by GPS or other means. A few implementations tions, a notification bar lets them Some software-development com- specify whether they want to provide Low demand in Europe panies have created applications that specific, general, or no information. Mobile navigation is more widely work with LBS information, said Col- Microsoft will include LBS capa- used in the US, which will require all leen Parent, a senior project manager bilities in its upcoming Windows 7. phones and networks to be able to tell for GlobalConnex network services According to company program man- police and fire personnel the location at Intelsat, a fixed-satellite service ager Alec Berntson, “Windows 7 will of mobile callers dialing 9-1-1 by 2012. provider. have an LBS API and will use all avail- This e911 directive has prompted cell- For example, Xora’s GPS TimeTrack able location data, including GPS, phone makers to include GPS chips business-productivity application lets Wi-fi, and cellular triangulation.” on all new US handsets. companies determine the most effi- In Europe, where there is no simi- cient way to route drivers and also slow adoption lar government mandate and perhaps monitors the location of equipment Several issues, such as security less perceived demand, the technol- and field workers. and privacy concerns, have contrib- ogy has been slower to take off. AT&T offers Xora applications, uted to LBS’s slow adoption. The which work via software run on GPS ability of LBS users to easily find out Miscellaneous devices within vehicles or equipment, the location of one another could The location industry hasn’t settled or on workers’ GPS-enabled phones, lead to privacy-related problems, on important issues such as pre- said Igor Glubochansky, AT&T’s direc- said Matthew McCormick, president ferred business models, ideal types tor of industry solutions. of telecommunications consultancy of host devices, and the best technical For consumers, Loopt—which Technology Decisions. approaches. works with QPoint’s location-based Also hurting adoption is the ongo- Also, developers have had trou- server software—is offering the ing transformation of LBS software ble bringing LBS applications to the Buddy Beacon application that lets from being single-purpose applica- mass market because of the complex users see where participating friends tions to being part of multiprogram coordination they must perform with

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Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Texas at Arlington. Downloaded on April 25,2010 at 03:01:13 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. wireless-service providers and phone both directly to cell phones and on Apple has added LBS capabili- makers. They must make sure their other media such as billboards, he ties to the iPhone 3G, he added, and software works not only with a set of explained. Sprint has signed a deal with uLocate devices but also with carriers. “The hot area for LBS will be in Communications to provide an LBS mobile advertising. The ability to platform for Sprint’s WiMax-based LBS FUTURE serve relevant ads based on a person’s wireless service. Over time, technology improve- location will be massive,” predicted According to Iadarola, LBS will ments and economies of scale will Abelson Group CEO and telecommu- become commonplace eventually but make LBS less expensive to provide, nications-marketing expert Jennifer not necessarily soon because of the which could help its adoption. Abelson. sour global economy and the techni- Also, Google, Nokia, and several Schapsis added that mobile loca- cal and marketplace challenges the start-ups that produce LBS software tion-based social networking—such approach still must overcome. are working with service providers as buddy finders—will also become For the technology to succeed, and phone makers to develop a uni- important. demand will have to increase out- versal way to access location data. side the US, and vendors will have to This way, their applications could find successful business models and work with multiple carriers and rost & Sullivan’s Iadarola address issues such as interoperabil- devices. predicted that 20 percent of ity and privacy. According to industry observers, mobile-device users globally LBS will continue to be most widely will utilize LBS by 2012. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols is a free- used in dedicated navigation devices ABI Research director lance technology writer based in Mills River, North Carolina. Contact him at and cell phones. FDominique Bonte predicts LBS will [email protected]. The technology will also increas- generate $13 billion in revenue in the ingly become an embedded or plug-in US alone by 2013, up from $515 mil- feature in vehicles, according to Chris lion in 2008. Smith, director of optimization strate- Alcatel-Lucent’s Perche observed, editor: Lee Garber, computer, l.garber@ gies, including those involving LBS, at “Nokia has already spent big bucks on computer.org search-engine-placement marketing LBS with the acquisition of Navteq for firm KeyRelevance. more than $8 billion.” “We’ve already seen a huge rise in GPS devices in vehicles in recent years,” he noted, “and the competi- tion, coupled with reduced costs, indicates it’ll soon be affordable enough to be included in all cars.” COMPUTING He said mobile computers such as laptops and mini-notebooks may THEN begin to use LBS extensively, too. The industry’s principal business models will be the sale of stand- Learn about computing history alone devices, such as those used for and the people who shaped it. navigation, and fees from telecommunications carriers and other service http://computingnow. providers for individual transactions, computer.org/ct said Claudio Schapsis, vice president of business development for the Isaac Daniel Group, an LBS vendor. Services could also aggregate LBS data from mobile-device users in an area, without including details that identify individuals, he noted. They could then sell the information to companies to help them target broad local advertising and marketing,

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