Indoor Location Tests Ahead, Mapping under Scrutiny
October 22, 2012
October was a month of shows, rumors and announcements. Testing of competing indoor location positioning technologies is being […]
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October was a month of shows, rumors and announcements. Testing of competing indoor location positioning technologies is being […]
The uproar caused by glitches in turn-by-turn and other features from Apple’s new Maps feature has forced CEO […]
We are making history. The rate of iOS and Android device adoption has surpassed adoption rates for any […]
Naysayers still exist when talking about the emerging indoor positioning market. They say that the market is still […]
With drive navigation nearing maturity, companies are scrambling to develop new offerings. Nokia and others are quickly building indoor mapping arsenals. We are edging closer to the LBS vision that early on defined the market: walk by a Starbucks and get a mobile coupon for a cuppa Joe. Qualcomm’s new Gimbal platform will not only speed the production of more sophisticated personalized apps, but will enable advertising that fits the immediate interests of the end user. Google wants to protect mobile advertising streams and has instituted rules to keep it consumer friendly.
There have not been many earth-shaking acquisitions of companies that have location as a big part of their offerings. However, the recent $310 million acquisition of CSR’s handset connectivity and location business by Samsung merits an additional look. CSR, along with Broadcom and Qualcomm, are looking at the indoor location market as a strong one in the next four years. In other news, the Mobile Resource Management market is seeing 20 percent growth — not a market with consumer excitability, but one that makes money.
Everyone wants a piece of the pie, the upcoming indoor location pie. Big companies and start-ups are engaged, some in research, others having launched solutions. While Wi-Fi is the most common technology, many companies are pursuing alternate methods, including GPS, audio, Bluetooth, small cell/cellular, distributed antenna systems (DAS), near field communication (NFC), white band, sensors, movement tracking, beacons, and more. Of the large players who are making a play for the indoor market, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Qualcomm, RIM, and TCS are the furthest along, reports Grizzly Analytics.
The Social Loco conference in San Francisco highlighted brands leveraging social location. However, it seems as if the conference focused more on the social than the location element. As one attendee said, “Location as a topic is almost like electricity as a topic, it’s just there.” In other industry news, veteran location executive Kanwar Chadha is moving on…
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