Location-based software (LBS) technology – that provides exact location details – will be the next opportunity for the mobile phone industry, said Spime Inc, a US-based LBS company.
Spime, which has R&D operations in Chennai, provides location-based software technology to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and original device manufacturers (ODMs), mobile operators and application developers.
The LBS market is estimated to be around $15 billion by 2015. Now, it’s around $4-5 billion.
Spime has signed an agreement with a telecom operator (name withheld) in India to offer ‘mobile classifieds’, which will be launched on September 15. “Mobile classifieds is a new feature in the Indian telecom market. It can be compared to eBay or Craigslist on a mobile phone,” said Shankar Narayanan, CEO of Spime.
This will be an SMS, fee-based service. Customers can send an SMS stating their location and any product or service they are looking for. “Once, the backend at the telecom operator finds a match between the location and the product, it will alert the user through an SMS and the buyer and seller can then take their transaction forward,” said Narayanan.
Also, the company expects at least 20 million mobile devices to have its newly launched LBS technology by the end of next year. “Five OEMs and ODMs are evaluating the hybrid map engine. Testing is on and four mobile operators from across the world are also testing it,” he said.
Shankar said, unlike a normal location-based system that provides static maps and needs an internet connection to provide location co-ordinates, the Spime hybrid engine will work both off-board (internet) and onboard(just the mobile device) model.
"These maps will provide the location, ‘points of interest’ ( PoIs like a restaurant or shop etc), geocoding (provide an address to the map engine and it will give the latitude and longitudinal location), reverse geocoding (provides an address based on latitude and longitude information) , routing and turn-by-turn navigation.”
"All this will soon be available on the mobile phone and will make life easier,” the CEO of Spime said.