Gartner: Markt für Location Based Services wird 2008 um 170 Prozent wachsen

Ms Zimmermann said: “Growth now will be stimulated by the arrival of mobile phones with built-in, precise location sensing and the arrival of new service providers, like Google and Nokia with its service offerings, keen to exploit geographic and positioning technologies.”

Different forces are driving technical developments and patterns of adoption in different regions. In the United States, the government ruled that mobile phones should always be able to call an emergency number – enhanced 911 or E911 – and  this has stimulated accurate positioning facilities. In Europe, the drive has come from consumer demand and the efforts of handset manufacturers and service operators. In the Far East, telecommunications carriers stimulated widespread adoption, particularly in South Korea, at the beginning of the decade and they have been broadening the range of services.

“The potential of this market will drive handset vendors, carriers and other service providers to compete with each other and new entrants will appear. Increased competition will reduce subscription prices,” Ms Zimmermann said. “The value chain is complex and fragmented and vendors will need to form alliances.”

Additional information is available in the Gartner report “Location- Based Services Subscriber and Revenue Forecast, 2006-2011.”

The report is available on Gartner’s Web site at http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=590907&subref=advsearch

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