ABI Research: Personal Locator Services to Reach 20M Consumers by 2011
Personal
locator services based on the GPS-enabled mobile phone will grow from
their current low user-base of 500,000 in North America to a total of more
than 20 million subscribers in 2011, according
to a new study from ABI Research.
Such location-based services, recently
launched as "family-finder" options by Sprint Nextel, Verizon
Wireless, and Disney Mobile, have now been joined by a new offering from
youth-oriented mobile operator Helio. Badged as the "Buddy
Beacon," the service allows users of Helio's Samsung Drift handsets
to build a "buddy list" and broadcast their locations to each
other for display on GPS-linked maps.
"Helio's Buddy Beacon is going to be very popular," says ABI
Research senior analyst Ken Hyers. "It's innovative. This is the
first service of its kind in North America."
First launched in South Korea and Japan, personal locator services
could reach 34 million Asia-Pacific subscribers by 2011.
ABI Research's "Location-Based
Services" report examines the market opportunities for LBS from a
handset-based perspective, focusing on location technologies, operator
deployment strategies, and GPS-enabled handset evolution.
