There is no hiding the 800-pound gorilla in the location-based services market. It’s the smartphone that will drive most LBS services. One company, deCarta, is finding strong growth powering navigation on several smartphone platforms. As a future LBS market driver, deCarta believes that...More>>

Try wiping up the Gulf oil spill with your phone. If that doesn’t work, Trimble’s Map the Spill, a free location-based mobile app and website, acts as a repository of data to chronicle impacts. Users can log reports, upload photos, map oil locations, and share updates. “The geographic scope...More>>

It’s July, which means big news is slow to come by — and it is the opportunity to examine what will drive the location-based services market in 2010. Who are the big players who are winning this year? Is it Google with huge advertising and LBS focus? Or is it Nokia, the top handset manufacturer...More>>

The PND and other location-based services battlefield lines were drawn recently as Garmin said it would be moving its place of incorporation to Switzerland. Garmin PND rival TomTom, and its subsidiary Tele Atlas, have enjoyed strong sales in Europe, so the move will be followed closely by the...More>>

Five months into 2010, and this column has yet to feature a PND vs. smartphone story —unlike last year when those types of news stories were pervasive in the industry. Some industry analysts believe that PND manufacturers are going to have to move away from concentrating on the individual units...More>>

While not much big news came out of the recent CTIA conference for the location-based services industry, the week following it saw Nokia purchase LBS ad company Metacarta and computer and phone giant Apple say it will sell advertisements. How Apple’s decision to sell advertisements has any impact...More>>

While not a lot of huge location-based services news surrounds this month’s CTIA Wireless conference, one of the big topics of discussion zeroes in on who will have the edge in the mobile LBS space between Google or Nokia — both companies recently announced free navigation applications. Will it...More>>

Going into the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month, companies are still talking about the recent decision by Nokia to offer free navigation — while Google’s decision to offer the same is still fresh in the industry’s memory. While some look at Nokia’s decision as a way to...More>>

The 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was down in attendance last year — some estimate as much as 40 percent. However, a new feeling of optimism, and several product rollouts, made this year’s edition seem livelier — even in a down economy. Ford, once again, is...More>>

TeleCommunication Systems' recent announcement that it was buying Networks in Motion is one short-term indicator of the true impact that the "Google effect" will have on the marketplace, one industry insider said. Clearly the game has changed -- and turn-by-turn navigation providers, content...More>>