The complaint says Google uses deceptive conduct to lockout competition in mobile. Google’s Android is the dominant smartphone operating system, running in 70 percent of units shipped at the end of 2012, according to Strategy Analytics. Google also dominates mobile search advertising with 96 percent of the market, according to eMarketer.

“Google is using its Android mobile operating system as a Trojan Horse to deceive partners, monopolize the mobile marketplace, and control consumer data,” said Thomas Vinje, counsel to the FairSearch coalition. “We are asking the commission to move quickly and decisively to protect competition and innovation in this critical market. Failure to act will only embolden Google to repeat its desktop abuses of dominance as consumers increasingly turn to a mobile platform dominated by Google’s Android operating system.”

FairSearch is an international coalition of 17 specialized search and technology companies whose members include Expedia, Microsoft, Nokia, Oracle, and TripAdvisor.

Google achieved its dominance in the smartphone operating system market by giving Android to device-makers for “free.” Android phone makers who want to include must-have Google apps such as Maps, YouTube, or Play are required to pre-load an entire suite of Google mobile services and to give them prominent default placement on the phone, the complaint says. This disadvantages other providers, charges FairSearch, and puts Google’s Android in control of consumer data on a majority of smartphones shipped today.

The FairSearch complaint comes at a time when users are increasingly switching from desktop to mobile platforms. Mobile Internet usage is expected to overtake desktop usage as soon as 2014, according to MindCommerce.

The European Commission is already considering how to remedy concerns that Google may be abusing its dominance in desktop search advertising, in particular Google’s search bias that favors its own services in search results.

Meanwhile, in April, six European data protection authorities began coordinating efforts to force Google to comply with European Union privacy laws they say Google violated by consolidating its privacy policies. Google paid a record fine to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in August 2012 to settle charges it gave misleading privacy promises to Safari Internet browser users.

“European consumers deserve a rigorous investigation of Google’s mobile practices, and real protections against further abuses by Google,” said Vinje. “Given Google’s track record of ignoring the law, mobile Internet users should be very concerned.”

Part of LBMA’s mandate is to foster research, innovation and pilot projects that push the boundaries of place-based marketing. Through this initiative, LBMA has partnered with several top-tier global brands carefully selected from among LBMA’s large network of marketing affiliates to introduce the new technology to consumers. The technology will be introduced in a series of test launches at major entertainment events throughout the summer, before making it widely to marketers in the fall, the association said.

Focus awareness combines traditional GPS-location awareness with data on where mobile users are aiming their smartphones. Focus-based technology enables new kinds of apps in which users aim their phones to engage with one another as they watch events simultaneously — for example to connect, chat or vote on the shared subject of focus. Focus-awareness also allows marketers to chart the shifting momentum in crowds.

The partnership comes as demand grows among LBMA’s network for mechanisms to enhance context-awareness in mobile. Marketers want to know how many phones are engaged with their apps as events are happening (heat), who those users are, where they are looking, and how the crowd’s engagement is dynamically changing moment to moment — all capabilities of CrowdOptic’s technology.

“Our vision of the future is new apps that dynamically adapt based on knowing what activities people in a crowd are watching and engaging in, as well as joining people with shared interests together, right there in the moment,” said Asif Khan, founder and president of LBMA.

“Focus is an emerging mobile category that will play a significant role in the next generation of location services,” said Brent Iadarola, Global Research Director of Mobile & Wireless Communications at Frost & Sullivan. “In contrast to augmented reality, which combines location and mobile Internet search to provide information on landmarks in static environments, focus-based services enable the tracking and tagging of objects (or individuals) in moving or dynamic environments. By enabling mobile users to point their phones at moving objects or people to access real-time information about their subject of interest, this area of technology in which CrowdOptic is a pioneer clearly presents some very unique and lucrative avenues for hyper-targeted marketing promotions, advertising, and mobile coupons.”

CrowdOptic is in use around the world in apps that enable users to “aim their phone” to act or interact — whether to discuss, report or discover other people based on their shared focus.  The company powers a range of applications which vary from finding friends in a crowd, to aiming a phone to vote, to aiming to alternate views of a live broadcast, to aiming to connect with athletes and celebrities at live events.  The technology works both through an app and anytime without an app, by historically mining the standard metadata tags embedded in shared photo images. The mechanisms used to acquire context beyond location include continuous streams of GPS, compass and triangulation algorithms illuminating common points of focus between mobile users.

The LBMA will begin to introduce these projects which leverage the CrowdOptic platform for top global brands beginning in the summer of 2013.

About LBMA – http://thelbma.com/

The Location Based Marketing Association is an international group dedicated to fostering research, education and collaborative innovation at the intersection of people, places, and media. Our goal is simple: To educate, share best practices, establish guidelines for growth and to promote the services of member companies to brands and other content-related providers. The over 600 members of the LBMA include retailers, restaurant chains, agencies, advertisers, media buyers, software and services providers, and wireless companies.

About CrowdOptic – www.crowdoptic.com

EverNav was initially released on September 2012 as an HTML5 turn-by-turn solution aimed at application developers and mobile marketing campaigns. The solution was quickly adapted by a large number of customers. Now, as part of the preparation for Mozilla’s release of the Firefox OS, a dedicated EverNav version will be released in April.

“We were one of the first few companies to release HTML5 based navigation back in 2012 and we are proud to be the first to release a dedicated navigation solution for the Firefox OS today. HTML5 technology has come to the point that we were able to develop a full-featured navigation user experience, and we are extremely happy with the result,” said Ziv Avni, AtlasCT’s marketing director.

EverNav for Firefox OS will include a personalized navigation experience with features like local information, live traffic reports, favorites and history sections, share location capability, social integration and more.

“As the leading provider of HTML5 turn-by-turn navigation solutions, as soon as we learned about the Firefox OS, we decided to release a dedicated version,” said Shlomo Emanuel, AtlasCT’s CEO. “We are still looking into a number of possible business models for the services and this is one of the subjects we are discussing with mobile carriers that have already committed to backing the open web device initiative.”

EverNav for Firefox OS will be available both on the Firefox Marketplace and on the EverNav website.

The company won one of six categories at the festival’s fifth annual SXSW Accelerator program, which has previously recognized companies such as Twitter and Foursquare. Unlike Google Maps and Apple’s default maps app, which allow people to search for a place on a map and look up directions, Plotter’s mobile maps app offers the ability to plot multiple locations at once. Users can also create maps of their favorite locations and share them with friends.

The app was released earlier this month on the Apple iTunes Store.

Following the recent announcement of Magellan’s SmartGPS device, the free Magellan SmartGPS Apps for iOS and Android devices are the next key elements in Magellan’s Smart Ecosystem, a cloud platform that integrates social media and navigation content directly onto a navigation map, the company said. The SmartGPS Apps automatically deliver continually updating reviews and tips for local businesses from social media including Yelp, Foursquare, and other partners to create current, local and personalized driving and pedestrian experiences.

The Magellan SmartGPS mobile apps display location-relevant information “squares” that graphically flip to show reviews, tips and offers from Yelp and Foursquare for nearby restaurants, stores and services. Users can then navigate to those locations directly from the SmartGPS App without needing to open an additional application or device. The cloud architecture enables new monetization of end users’ mobile search and navigation, and additional social media and content partners.

“We architected the Smart Ecosystem to integrate with automotive infotainment and mobile network service platforms so users can enjoy a truly mobile, connected car experience now,” said Peggy Fong, president of MiTAC Digital Corporation. “SmartGPS mobile apps connect to the vehicle dash, allowing users to easily search social media and points-of-interest for destinations, and send the locations via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to SmartGPS-enabled vehicle navigation systems.”

Magellan’s free iOS and Android SmartGPS apps create a total-solution SmartGPS experience that is truly mobile. Magellan connects the smartphone to the vehicle dashboard, enabling location sync and sharing, hands-free operation and data connectivity. Users can pair their Magellan SmartGPS app with SmartGPS-enabled navigation systems. Using their SmartGPS App, SmartGPS enabled navigation system, or PC, users can search for a location, save the location in Magellan’s Smart Ecosystem cloud, and sync and share the location to any SmartGPS enabled device via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

The free Magellan SmartGPS Apps will be available in North America this Spring, and in Europe this Summer, from iTunes and Google Play. Premium versions of both apps featuring spoken turn-by-turn navigation will also be available.

The settlement with Path is part of the FTC’s ongoing effort to make sure companies live up to the privacy promises they make to consumers, and that kids’ personal information isn’t collected or shared online without their parents’ consent.

“Over the years the FTC has been vigilant in responding to a long list of threats to consumer privacy, whether it is mortgage applications thrown into open trash dumpsters, kids information culled by music fan websites, or unencrypted credit card information left vulnerable to hackers,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. “This settlement with Path shows that no matter what new technologies emerge, the agency will continue to safeguard the privacy of Americans.”

Path operates a social networking service that allows users to keep journals about moments in their life and to share that journal with a network of up to 150 friends. Through the Path app, users can upload, store, and share photos, written thoughts, the user’s location, and the names of songs to which the user is listening.

In its complaint, the FTC charged that the user interface in Path’s iOS app was misleading and provided consumers no meaningful choice regarding the collection of their personal information. In version 2.0 of its app for iOS, Path offered an “Add Friends” feature to help users add new connections to their networks. The feature provided users with three options: “Find friends from your contacts;” “Find friends from Facebook;” or “Invite friends to join Path by email or SMS.” However, Path automatically collected and stored personal information from the user’s mobile device address book even if the user had not selected the “Find friends from your contacts” option. For each contact in the user’s mobile device address book, Path automatically collected and stored any available first and last names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, Facebook and Twitter usernames, and dates of birth.

The FTC also alleged that Path’s privacy policy deceived consumers by claiming that it automatically collected only certain user information such as IP address, operating system, browser type, address of referring site, and site activity information. In fact, version 2.0 of the Path app for iOS automatically collected and stored personal information from the user’s mobile device address book when the user first launched version 2.0 of the app and each time the user signed back into the account.

The agency also charged that Path, which collects birth date information during user registration, violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rule by collecting personal information from approximately 3,000 children under the age of 13 without first getting parents’ consent. Through its apps for both iOS and Android, as well as its website, Path enabled children to create personal journals and upload, store and share photos, written thoughts, their precise location, and the names of songs to which the child was listening. Path version 2.0 also collected personal information from a child’s address book, including full names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth and other information, where available.

The COPPA Rule requires that operators of online sites or services directed to children, or operators that have actual knowledge of child users on their sites or services, notify parents and obtain their consent before they collect, use, or disclose personal information from children under 13. Operators covered by the Rule also have to post a privacy policy that is clear, understandable, and complete.

The FTC charged that Path violated the COPPA Rule by:

• not spelling out its collection, use and disclosure policy for children’s personal information;
• not providing parents with direct notice of its collection, use and disclosure policy for children’s personal information; and
• not obtaining verifiable parental consent before collecting children’s personal information.

In addition to the $800,000 civil penalty, Path is prohibited from making any misrepresentations about the extent to which it maintains the privacy and confidentiality of consumers’ personal information. The proposed settlement also requires Path to delete information collected from children under age 13 and bars future violations of COPPA. Path has already deleted the address book information that it collected during the time period its deceptive practices were in place.

The FTC has also introduced Mobile App Developers: Start with Security, a business guide that encourages developers to aim for reasonable data security, evaluate the app ecosystem before development, and includes tips such as making someone responsible for data security and taking stock of the data collected and maintained.

The commission vote to authorize the staff to refer the complaint to the Department of Justice and to approve the proposed consent decree was 5-0. The DOJ filed the complaint on behalf of the Commission in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on January 31, 2013.  The proposed consent decree will be filed with the same U.S. District Court today and is subject to court approval.

Broadcom will showcase its GNSS innovations at the upcoming Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, February 25-28.

A geographical region of interest (“geofence”) is being used by many new and innovative location-aware applications. The geofence feature enables the application to receive a notification when a user enters or exits a virtual perimeter. However, the implementation of this feature in traditional architectures is not viable, as the applications processor needs to run constantly, causing rapid drain to the device’s battery. Broadcom’s new BCM47521 overcomes this issue, making it possible to continuously monitor geofence areas while consuming 60x less battery power.

“The astounding growth of mobile devices is driving new opportunities for inventive applications that deliver valuable location-aware information,” said Scott Pomerantz, Broadcom vice president and general manager, GPS. “With the BCM47521’s low-power geofence mode, Broadcom is driving the next wave of system power consumption innovation that will allow OEMs to incorporate features that differentiate their mobile offerings and make location-aware, always-on applications a reality.”

The BCM47521 chip also provides multi-constellation support by simultaneously collecting data from GPS, GLONASS, QZSS and SBAS, and using the best received signals, resulting in faster searches and more accurate real-time navigation, Broadcom said. Broadcom’s multi-constellation technology, coupled with advanced signal processing, provides faster positioning performance for improved user experience, especially in challenging urban environments where buildings and obstructions can dramatically impact accuracy and time-to-first-fix.

A key feature is the 60x better system power efficiency versus a host-based architecture. An advanced host-offload mode monitors geofences in the background and only activates the applications processor when there is a trigger event, and smart algorithms adapt in real-time as the user gets closer to a geofence boundary.

The capital will be used to further develop and expand Verve’s proprietary mobile location-based advertising and publishing products and to grow its marketing and sales capabilities.

“Verve’s focus is combining big data, location-based services (LBS) and ad technologies to make mobile advertising work better for advertisers and publishers,” said Tom MacIsaac, Verve Mobile CEO.  “Nokia and Qualcomm are global leaders in mobile technology innovation and have important insights, assets, initiatives and relationships that can help Verve maintain its lead in location powered mobile advertising.”

John Gardner of Nokia Growth Partners has joined Verve’s Board in connection with the financing, and Quinn Li of Qualcomm Ventures has become a Board Observer.

Verve Mobile’s customers are national-brand advertisers who want to engage consumers on their mobile devices with location-aware, data-driven and highly targeted marketing, the company said. Verve has offices in New York, Washington D.C. and San Diego, California.