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Promising growth of Location - Based Sevices
Location-based services (LBS) which have largely remained untapped in Asia-Pacific are expected to show promising growth in tandem with the introduction of mash-up services and increase in mobile advertising. "Asia Pacific Location-based Services Market", reveals that the market - covering 13 major Asia-Pacific economies - was worth US$291.7 million in 2006, and is expected to grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 15.3 percent (2006-2009) to reach an estimated US$447 million by end-2009. "LBS is emerging as the benchmark for service differentiation among mobile operators. Despite being a fairly small segment, this niche market is gradually shifting from a mere complementary service into a significant source of revenues," says Frost & Sullivan industry manager Janice Chong. LBS, which encompass a complex eco-system of application developers, content providers, merchants and advertisers, demonstrate the progressive demand of mobile users for more control over content and services that operators provide. "The implementation of a full-spectrum LBS which includes mash-up services can significantly expedite the creation of a robust mobile content eco-system in the various Asia-Pacific countries," she adds. Market Overview Japan and South Korea at the Forefront of Strongly Emergent LBS Market in Asia Pacific Japan and South Korea, are by far, the most developed and mature location-based services (LBS) markets compared to the rest of the Asia Pacific markets, which still largely remain in the nascent stages of growth. Several issues deter the overall growth of the market including privacy infringement issues, incorrect detection methods, inter-operability issues, high roaming charges, lack of sophisticated global positioning system (GPS)-enabled handsets, and significantly, lack of user interest. However, as revenues from voice services are declining, wireless carriers are increasingly resorting to value-added services such as LBS, in a bid to attract customers."These markets also exhibit a much higher consumer-to-enterprise LBS ratio. The consumer segment provides a more durable payoff since a tight nexus to mobile advertising exists, allowing more potential for growth," notes Chong. "Further contributing to the adoption of LBS, is the deployment of high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) networks, the imminent rollout of WiMAX networks, and other mobile broadband technologies," observes the analysts. "These new technologies will stimulate market growth with increased bandwidth and ubiquity of coverage." Japan and South Korea continue to hold the lion's share in this market poised for strong growth, due to several factors. Both countries have the advantage of a superior data market, the presence of a complete mobile eco-system that encourages both application developers and content providers, and the extensive availability of sophisticated, feature-rich handsets. Cell-ID Technology Limiting the Uptake of LBS Although comparatively less accurate, Cell-ID remains to be the most preferred location-determination technology among mobile operators owing to its ease of deployment and economy. The detection errors caused by Cell-ID technology make it unsuitable for advanced location-sensitive applications and services. While this technology with its limited accuracy served the need of most operators in the past, in the current scenario, it is limiting the uptake of advanced LBS applications in the region. Technologies covered in the research:
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