On 14^th December 2011 location based service (LBS) provider TeleNav announced the availability of its HTML5 browser based GPS navigation service for a limited number of developers. The service will enable bricks and mortar retailers in the US to integrate navigation features onto its mobile website. Many retailers provide a map of business location on their websites, but this goes a stage further, allowing consumers with GPS enabled phones to access voice-guided directions to the merchant without needing to fire up a separate application. TeleNav aims to provide this capability for free, and there appears to be few barriers to entry for retailers.

 

Google employed a similar approach on the fixed internet, by making static maps available to almost anyone to embed onto websites for free. Google encouraged these users to build services on top of its maps. This free map strategy significantly boosted the presence and use of Google Maps online.

 

By making navigation available for free TeleNav aims to drive the availability of both its maps and voice navigation service on the mobile web, supplanting Google and other online map providers like Microsoft/ Nokia. With mobile generating 10% of website traffic for some retailers providing navigation in addition to maps for free is likely to be a no brainer!  Moving forward, I expect TeleNav will aim to monetize free navigation in a similar manner to Google. Google has segmented the market and only charges businesses leveraging Google Map APIs within a pay wall environment, for business-to-business use, or within the confines of an intranet.

 

Although this is undoubtedly a smart move by TeleNav, I expect it will be unlikely to replace the adoption of Google Maps or Nokia Maps APIs by businesses:

 

Both Google and Nokia will likely monitor the speed at which TeleNav’s free map and navigation services take off, and respond by replicating the offer.

Furthermore, although HTML5 supports offline mode, which allows an application to cache data for use when the handset is not connected to the network, I’m certain the user experience is likely to be compromised. That is exactly what this limited trial will aim to tease out!

Today, Nokia announced the inclusion of free turn by turn navigation on ten phone models – further enhancing Ovi’s value proposition. The service, which is almost certainly to be seen as a fast follower to Google’s similar launch in late 2009 should in fact be viewed as pushing an industry on the precipice over the edge. But the question is – does turn by turn even matter? From purely a platform perspective – yes, for now. For others such as Apple to follow suit they will need map data, turn by turn licensing agreements, an acquisition perhaps, or take a hit on margins. While Apple may find a way to bring turn by turn to the iPhone in short order, Nokia and Google have laid down the gauntlet by using maps as a competitive differentiator, a difference the companies must hammer home while the advantage is theirs. The proprietary ownership of mapping data is a huge advantage for Nokia (Navteq) and Google. There is a famous saying, wherever you go – there you are. But such antiquated logic demands an update and today we would be trite not to say, wherever you are - there your phone is. If you are not yet prepared to accept this reality you should peruse Yelp, foursquare, Loopt, Aka-Aki, Gree or Gowalla and you will clearly see that the future of mobile is not only about where you are but where you are going. By enabling turn by turn navigation on its devices both Google and Nokia have assured developers that location based services will be available to those seeking to include them in applications while making location based advertising easier. Nokia has two advantages over Google. Firstly its scale - S60 devices are ahead of Android devices, for now at least. Secondly, its navigation solution resides primarily on the device, not on the network. For users who travel internationally and don’t want to pay roaming charges, those with spotty coverage, or those who don’t want a data plan this is a huge advantage. For carriers hoping to offload some network congestion this approach is a relief. Of course, it's threat to carriers hoping to bundle TBT for an additional cost. For consumers (primarily those that do not own stock in a GPS manufacturer) this is a big win. For Nokia, "free" is a significant improvement on its current proposition but the company will have to do more in the long term to be seen as an innovator and not a fast follower. Despite the momentum building towards turn by turn navigation the features are simply a means towards a longer term end. Knowing where people are, where they are going, and how they are getting there is incredibly valuable information and could lead to a plethora of new advertising opportunities in addition to new applications. Related research: Nokia strides forward in online location and navigation Location based services, opportunities within an emerging battleground -Josh M

Today, Nokia announced the inclusion of free turn by turn navigation on ten phone models – further enhancing Ovi’s value proposition. The service, which is almost certainly to be seen as a fast follower to Google’s similar launch in late 2009 should in fact be viewed as pushing an industry on the precipice over the edge. But the question is – does turn by turn even matter? From purely a platform perspective – yes, for now. For others such as Apple to follow suit they will need map data, turn by turn licensing agreements, an acquisition perhaps, or take a hit on margins. While Apple may find a way to bring turn by turn to the iPhone in short order, Nokia and Google have laid down the gauntlet by using maps as a competitive differentiator, a difference the companies must hammer home while the advantage is theirs. The proprietary ownership of mapping data is a huge advantage for Nokia (Navteq) and Google. There is a famous saying, wherever you go – there you are. But such antiquated logic demands an update and today we would be trite not to say, wherever you are - there your phone is. If you are not yet prepared to accept this reality you should peruse Yelp, foursquare, Loopt, Aka-Aki, Gree or Gowalla and you will clearly see that the future of mobile is not only about where you are but where you are going. By enabling turn by turn navigation on its devices both Google and Nokia have assured developers that location based services will be available to those seeking to include them in applications while making location based advertising easier. Nokia has two advantages over Google. Firstly its scale - S60 devices are ahead of Android devices, for now at least. Secondly, its navigation solution resides primarily on the device, not on the network. For users who travel internationally and don’t want to pay roaming charges, those with spotty coverage, or those who don’t want a data plan this is a huge advantage. For carriers hoping to offload some network congestion this approach is a relief. Of course, it's threat to carriers hoping to bundle TBT for an additional cost. For consumers (primarily those that do not own stock in a GPS manufacturer) this is a big win. For Nokia, "free" is a significant improvement on its current proposition but the company will have to do more in the long term to be seen as an innovator and not a fast follower. Despite the momentum building towards turn by turn navigation the features are simply a means towards a longer term end. Knowing where people are, where they are going, and how they are getting there is incredibly valuable information and could lead to a plethora of new advertising opportunities in addition to new applications. Related research: Nokia strides forward in online location and navigation Location based services, opportunities within an emerging battleground -Josh M

In many ways, convergence between online and mobile is already here. For some types of content, convergence with mobile was something that just happened. Take music; as soon as phones became music players, “convergence” was already in place. Strategy Analytics’ consumer research shows 83% of Western Europeans and Americans have used their phone as a music player, with 37% using the devices as their regular portable music player (although only 6% have actually purchased music on their phone, but that’s a different story… see Can Nokia Challenge Apple's Digital Music Dominance).  For media companies and internet brands, it’s no longer about whether or not they should have a mobile presence, but rather what form that mobile presence takes. An optimized web page? An app in the App Store? A deal with an operator? These are all options, sure, but for me it’s a shame that most of the discussion around convergence is simply about making the same content available on the mobile device. Rather than focus on convergence, which is clearly the direction media markets are heading (if they haven’t already arrived, as in the case of music), I’d like to look instead at what I see as step 2 – divergence. By divergence, what do I mean? I’m talking about the unique factors of mobile; what is it that makes the mobile environment different, and how can that be used to provide a better user experience - and thus, ultimately, greater revenues? Yes, there is a smaller screen size, lower processing power, and of course a mobile experience has to be designed around these limiting factors, but there are also some strongly positive characteristics about mobile usage which can actually be used to improve the experience. One of the first things that people might expect me to talk about here is the idea of targeted advertising. However, I’m not going to go down that route – aside from the fact that you’ve almost certainly heard it all before, targeted advertising is not something that enhances the user experience. It’s simply a tool to attempt to generate slightly higher advertising revenues. I’m not talking about the content either – made for mobile content has rarely been popular, and it seems that what consumers want is traditional content. So what am I talking about? It’s the experience, not the content, which has to be “made for mobile”. An example of a media type where mobile actually adds something new is social networking. The constantly updating nature of social networks along with the “always on, always with you” nature of the mobile phone is a match made in heaven. Strategy Analytics conducted a survey of MySpace users, and found that more users accessed MySpace Mobile daily than the main MySpace.com website. With such high levels of mobile usage, it seems remarkable that the most popular social networks (MySpace and facebook) have yet to monetize this traffic. Usage patterns were quite different – sessions were shorter and tended to be limited to status updates and comments (see Mobile Social Networking - Strategies for Success ). Mobile isn’t exactly converging with online, it’s diverging – mobile will become the main use case for social networks, and the usage will be different from how it has been in the online world. To make the most of this opportunity, social networks need to think about how mobile is different, not just simply try and replicate the desktop experience on mobile. Context is another way in which mobile is very different from online. If I’m accessing a website from my desktop, I am at my desk. If I’m accessing a website from my mobile, I could be anywhere, and the place I am at matters. Taking a simple example, if I’m in town and I’m searching for a movie, I almost certainly want cinema listings close to where I am located. I’m unlikely to want to go to the movie’s own website, or the IMDB page (typically these will be the top 2 search results). Location clearly matters, and this is why both Nokia and Google have been investing so heavily in maps products. Google has a huge head-start online, as not only are Google Maps available through Google's own web properties, they are available on many other websites. This has given Google a 44% share of the local search market (comScore, July 2008). In terms of handsets, Nokia has something of a lead as it pre-installs Ovi Maps on Nokia smartphones. In just 3 years, Nokia went from being non-existent in this market to being the world’s largest manufacturer of GPS devices. The location capabilities of phones add divergence from the fixed, online world – optimizing search results for my location is one way to really enhance the user experience, but it has the potential to add all sorts of richness to other media (see Nokia Strides Forward in Online Location and Navigation and Crowd Sourcing Model to Disrupt Premium Mobile Navigation Market) Take social networking, where as I discussed earlier, mobile is already driving usage. Nokia announced a deal with facebook, and facebook users with Ovi Maps on their device can now post their location. Users can tag photographs uploaded from phones with GPS coordinates. There’s really quite a number of ways in which the mobile experience can actually add something new and I really believe that these early examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Now that people can access the same content online and on mobile (and the iPhone has proven that) we already have convergence. What is going to be exciting to watch, and where we’ll see the really exciting innovation, is actually the divergence of mobile. - David MacQueen, Director, Wireless Media Strategies

 

As guest speakers David Kerr and I have just returned from the the inaugural Metaplaces location based services conference in San Jose 22nd-23rd September 2009. The event was attended by companies across the LBS value-chain. Among others, content providers such as Inrix, USA Today, WCities; Digital mapping companies Tele Atlas, Navteq, Waze, Open Streetmap; LBS application publishers uLocate, Wavemarket, Loopt, Google; LBS solution vendors Openwave, Sense Networks, 1020 Placecast, and Qualcomm. Notably, there was an absence of operators and advertisers, with only US carrier MetroPCS and Publicis representing respectively. The fact that so few carriers were in attendance underlines why they are losing their position in LBS, yes pun intended sadly, and suggests that LBS remains off their list of priorities.  

The three main standouts for this event for us were:

1. Waze: We were most impressed by the social digital mapping company Waze, who proclaimed it has recently expanded its application to Symbian and Windows Mobile platforms, and has just reached a critical mass of 160,000 users in Israel. Waze offers a free turn-by-turn (TBT) navigation application based on digitized census map data. This basic map is being constantly improved by a community of users whom allow their handsets to be tracked as they drive. Further user participation involves users actively annotating details to the map (e.g. notifying Waze of new roads, new one-way signs and changes to traffic flows, etc within the application). Making the process of user feedback as pain free as possible is clearly imperative to enhance participation levels. Overall, the model relies on an appealing trade off. Firstly, the user gets a free TBT application, and their incentive to improve the map and offer information is that their free TBT application will improve further in quality. Secondly, the benefit for Waze is rather than invest billions of dollars to collect map data, a la Nokia, its community is doing so on its behalf. According to Waze 1% of cellular users per market is sufficient. Armed with an improving digital map Waze can to some extent compete with TeleAtlas and Navteq in licensing of digital map data. Everyone is a winner, and although the quality of the maps are unlikely to compete with Tele Atlas or Navteq, the success of Wikipedia underlines the potential of user or community generated content.   
2. Uncertainty around monetization: We were looking forward hearing case studies about how companies had started to use location data to make money - the tag line for the event was 'How to Monetize Location Data & Services,' so can you blame us? Despite numerous innovative ideas about how location can be used, it is clear that most players in the LBS industry are still trying to figure out what business models will prevail, and many are pinning their hopes on advertising. There's little disputing that user location data can improve ad targeting if cleverly combined with other relevant data about the consumer. However, Sense Networks claims to have gone a step further. Its analytical tools allow it to categorize cellular users into classic (and not so classic) consumer segments based on tracking their movements over the course of a few months. This solution clearly addresses the problem that carriers have collecting data about their prepaid customer bases, and kills two birds with one stone. Firstly, carriers with large prepaid subscriber bases (in markets like Italy and many emerging markets) can learn more about their customers and adjust their own service marketing accordingly. Secondly, carriers with ambitions of becoming a smart pipe are in a stronger position to provide consumer targeting information to advertisers. Oh yes, as you'd expect, discussion about privacy implications was a key feature during the entire conference.      
3. US carrier bottleneck: US operators remain a bottle neck to location based service availability. While owners of smartphones integrated with GPS are able to use the rising number of location enabled applications that are available through vendor application stores, the majority of non-smartphone users are restricted to the services the carriers make available through their portals. To provide an example of how slowly US operators are moving regional US cellular operator MetroPCS is only just about to make location look ups available to third party applications that are distributed through its portal. It is yet to consider opening up user look ups on a wholesale basis. While US operators continue to guard the location data of their customers, carriers will continue to fall behind and LBS innovation will continue without them.

While innovation continues in the LBS sector, mainly outside the carrier channel, the unanswered question remains - where is the money?