This IDC study provides IDC's update of the market potential for mobile location-based services in the United States. Although IDC recognizes that the mobile LBS market also includes other segments - including public safety, mobile business process automation (MBPA) services, and telematics - this study focuses only on the market for mobile location-based services provided through mobile phones. For the purposes of this study and forecast for location-based services, a mobile location-based service requires two elements: First, the user must be using a wireless mobile device, such as a wireless phone or PDA. Second, the service involves automatically determining the geographic location of the user's device.
"Although market reality has yet to match the hype that has surrounded the space, IDC believes that opportunities for mobile location services will emerge over the next few years, and we believe the winners in this arena will be those operators that can offer these services within a context of application enablement - both technically and monetarily," said Keith Waryas, research manager of the IDC's Wireless Business Network Services program. "Ultimately, the operators that will be most successful with LBS will be those that are willing to embrace outside development. Simply put, the pace of mobile application development and the expertise required to be successful in the space are not necessarily synergistic with carriers' core business competence and objectives. As
non?voice applications become more critical to carriers' success, both with regard to location-based and data services in general, centralized application resources - such as Qualcomm's BREW model, which essentially allows for outsourced application development, cataloging, and provisioning - will become increasingly critical."
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