Yet another way to use our mobiles
IF you don’t think you could manage without your trusty sat nav, you’ll be pleased to hear that similar services could soon make their way on to your mobile phone – if they manage to overcome a few barriers en route.
Experts in the mobile industry have been predicting for a while that so-called location-based services would be the next big thing.
Put simply, location-based services refers to pretty much any application that makes use of the geographical position of your mobile device to provide you with some sort of useful information or service.
Until recently, few phones have been able to offer location-based services because they weren’t GPS-equipped and didn’t have a fast enough internet connection. Now, though, we’re finally starting to see a few popping up.
Many of the applications available or in development at the moment are in the social networking area. For instance, the likes of Brightkite, Whereboutz and Plazes enable you to see where your friends and contacts are, if they’ve also signed up to the service.
If the idea of anyone you’ve ever connected with being able to track you down at the local coffee shop doesn’t appeal, you might be glad to hear there are some other, much more useful, applications.
Loopt, Whrrl, Socialight and Qype, for example, show you where you can find restaurants, bars and other venues nearby, complete with reviews. And there are other uses too, such as door-to-door directions to a chosen address, city tour guides, news and other content about your local area, geo-specific advertising and promotions, and much more besides.
While there can be little doubt that these services could be huge, the companies behind them will have to break through a few barriers if they’re to take off in the same way that, say, SMS messaging did in Europe.
For a start, they’ll have to work out how best to monetise them. Will they, as seems likely, be advertising- funded? If so, how will that work? And how will they overcome general apathy from potential customers towards using some of these services?
The biggest challenge of all, though, will be the issue of privacy. Many people will be reluctant to reveal their location to advertisers or friends, even if service providers assure them their data will be carefully protected.
If, however, they do manage to overcome these challenges, as I expect they will, I think we’ll see a massive growth in these services over the next 12 months.
