One of the great advantages of mobile phones is that not only do they move around, but in general it is possible to tell where they are. Thus if the mobile user needs to know the local transport information, the nearest cash point, or even the local weather, a service provider should be able to tell them quickly and easily.
Location based services have been available on mobile for some time. But why haven't they taken off?
The answer, as is often the case, is MONEY. In order to get a location 'hit' the service provider must directly or through an aggregator, get an agreement to collect the LBS information from them. Unfortunately all the mobile networks want to charge a monthly minimum for this plus a cost per location hit.
More often than not this is passed on to the user through Premium SMS. The problem is that the users clearly do not value this information enough to pay for it on any grand scale. Even the TfL cabwise service, which allows you to text to recieve information of your nearest licensed taxi, charges 35p to cover their costs.
You may think that by providing this information for free the networks will benefit - better customer relationships, more mobile web usage, higher grade handsets sold etc.
Will the networks ever get to the point where they realise it is better to give away this information than charge for it? I very much doubt it. They only see revenue as the way forward.
There are, however a few examples of LBS which as been funded by advertising. Travel FC is a new LBS giving travel information of all things to Manchester United supporters. And it is sponsored by Manchester United themselves.
The thing that may throw the cat amongst the pigeons is Google. They are currently collection data from users about the position of each mobile mast and reverse engineering their own LBS. Of course Google WILL give this away for free and probably make an API available for anyone to do it. Where that leaves the networks it remains to be seen, but once again a web company has shown the mobile world how things should be done.
No comments:
Post a Comment