CTIA Hit by Down Economy, Still a Networking Gem for LBS Companies

April 8, 2009 By: Kevin Dennehy

LBS Insider Newsletter, April 2009

LAS VEGAS—Like the Consumer Electronics Show and Mobile World Congress before it, CTIA Wireless 2009 here was clearly down in registrants, but not optimism, for location-based services. In the only “pure” LBS panel, “Commercializing LBS,” panel members are saying that the market is moving toward bundling services as part of a wireless carrier’s strategy.

“Prices are going down drastically in this market — that leaves bundling. Companies that offer flat-rate plans like MetroPCS are now integrating location services,” said Steve Andler, Networks in Motion vice president of marketing.

When consumers purchase MetroPCS’ $50 rate plan they will have access to several applications such as MetroNavigator, a GPS navigation system from Networks in Motion. In the meantime, TeleNav has its nav system being bundled in by Sprint as part of other services. TeleNav is also offering enterprise fleet tracking for a $50 per month fee.

“The pre-paid wireless market is so different that you have to make judgments about pricing on a case-by-case basis. You have to look at the side costs associated,” said Darshan Patel, Virgin Mobile USA director of service development. “You also have to look whether an advertising-driven model will succeed. [These include] Banner ads that tout bundled services.”

Google believes location itself should be free, said Steve Lee, a company senior product manager. “We believe location is a utility and should be free. We also are making our assisted GPS servers, Chrome Browser, and cell tower open with open access—which is great news for application developers,” he said.

One panel member said he didn’t think a subscription model, which has made Networks in Motion and TeleNav arguably the two most profitable LBS companies, is something that is driving the market. “We get direct consumer feedback. The interest in navigation has fueled the market, but is the subscription model hindering true adoption in the mobile space?” said David Harris, Motorola senior director, mobile Internet services.

In the early stages of the LBS industry, there were limited pricing options, but now there is a good mix, said HP Jin, TeleNav president and CEO. “You have to look at the trends. Connected PNDs were a growing trend — and we said, ‘Let’s try this,’” he said, referring to his company’s recent announcement of its connected PND called Shotgun.

While it is a subject that many in the industry have an opinion about, most companies believe privacy will not hurt LBS market expansion. “It hasn’t been a big problem. However, you will notice that wireless carriers never have a ‘friend-finder’ application, but only a family-finder,” Jin said. “The only product we offer that [purposely] tracks employees is NavTrak.”

Some companies constantly in the public eye have a few more worries about privacy. “Google is under constant privacy scrutiny — and we expect it. We have an opt-in model,” Lee said. “We don’t store location history with [Google] Latitude.”

Overall, there were fewer LBS companies exhibiting at CTIA. Many of the companies at CTIA had a “we are here to show the flag” attitude. As was the case at CES, many companies opted for onsite or offsite meeting rooms, rather than getting a booth. “No one is sending anyone…anywhere,” said one company executive.

Those companies with presence at the show usually were in larger partners’ booths such as Qualcomm or Microsoft. Or they were in specific areas like the M2M Zone, which had better conference traffic than many areas of the conference.

One mainstay of CTIA is the always well-attended Navteq Global LBS Challenge. As GPS World reported, this year’s winner is T+1 Solutions, which won for its mobile taxi ordering service that helps consumers connect with taxi companies. Navteq, with a large booth and industry partners displaying products, had no less than 10 LBS products on display at CTIA.

TrafficCast Rolls Out Dynaflow 2.0, Partners with TomTom

TrafficCast International rolled out its Dynaflow 2.0 traffic data information software. TomTom will be the launch customer for Dynaflow 2.0 with the introduction of its GO 740 Live connected PND in the U.S. market.

“The key is forecasting road speeds 48 hours out. This allows for more more ground truth — what the driver sees,” said Nick Kiernan, TrafficCast vice president, business development.

Dynaflow analyzes road speeds based on sensors, accident reports, weather, construction, and local events modeled against GPS tracking data. “Engineers have been augmenting our ongoing quality process. Our competition have been showing free flow, not using all available sensors and probes,” said Tim Courtney, TrafficCast executive vice president, global sales operations.

Madison, Wisconsin-based TrafficCast recently added employees from both Motorola and Westwood One and brought in four engineers to revamp software. Industry veteran Neal Campbell, formerly with Motorola, was brought in as new CEO.

In the meantime, TrafficCast competitor Inrix said it is delivering real-time access to 10,000 traffic cameras in more than 100 markets across nearly every major city in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and New Zealand.

In other CTIA news:

According to published reports, Mio Technology, which recently purchased Magellan’s PND business, is shutting down U.S. operations. However, one industry insider said, “If I were a betting man, they are going to keep the Magellan name and continue to offer those products for the U.S. market.” Magellan is offering new PNDs with roadside assistance and one-touch search and navigation capability, said Christine Liu, Magellan product marketing manager.
Verizon’s VZ Navigator now comes with an LBS function that has destination capability sent to mobile phones. After using 411 Search to find a phone number or address, Verizon Wireless customers with VZ Navigator-capable phones can have a place message with that destination sent to their phones, by pressing "1" when prompted. The user then can use VZ Navigator to display the location on a map or navigate to that location.