On Tuesday March 15 at the CTIA Wireless industry trade show the winners of this years' Navteq Global LBS Challenge were announced. Out of a field of some 180 companies 6 inovative applications were singled out for excellence and recognized as winning apps, meeting the criteria of superior usability and utility. The LBSzone Editor was pleased to have been in attendance once again.

With the wireless industry rebounding big time, CTIA wireless 2005 was a fantastic event. This year there was the usual parade of devices, peripherals and as susal a plethora of carriers were in attendance. Unlike previous years though, much attention was on wireless data, applications, and services. In particular, the 2 "E's"... Entertainment and Enterprise were in my mind, at center stage. These are indeed the two sectors that are/will be driving the bus and generating customers and revenues for the wireless industry.

Perhaps the best venue at the show to get a glimpse of some fantastic applications was the Global LBS Challenge, hosted by leading data provider, Navteq. The event recognizes excellence in the application of location-based services. Perhaps even more important though, the event brings headlines and recognition to the concept of spatially enabling mobile applications. To give you an idea how far things have come in just one year, the 2004 LBS Challenge selected it's winner (Networks in Motion) from a field of 40 entries. This year, the 2005 LBS Challenge had a recod 180 appllication entries - kudos to the judges for the efforts to skinny down this pool of talent to a field of 18.

At the award ceremony, a field of 18 applications were recognized as finalists in 6 categories. Winners of each category are given the distinction as an LBS Challenge winner and each received $10,000 and $75k worth of Navteq data licenses. On overall winner was then selected from the 6 category winners. The "Big Kahuna" and Global LBS Challenge Winner received $50,000 and $100k in data licenses.

And so, the 6 categories and winners were as follows:

Personal Security - Clarity Communication Systems for their WhereAbouts application. Enables parents to monitor and track children's location

Find-me Application - Loc-Aid Technologies for Loc-Aid People Service used to locate friends and family.

Navigation/POI/Address lookup - InfoGation Corp provides real-time traffic, weather and gas price information

Commercial Advertising & Billing - Smartner Agent Service enables real estate professionals and home-seekers to locate and manage real estate listings and related information.

Gaming & Location-based imaging - Networks in Motion and PhotoFinder allows users to manage photos containing location tags, view them on a map and send to another phone or website along with navigation to location where the picture was taken

2005 Global LBS Challenege Winner... Asset Tracking - Bones in Motion offers users an effortless way to wirelessly monitor, measure and motivate users toward their fitness goals using a GPS-enabled mobile phone. The application records time, distance, speed, location, splits, and calories burned for outdoor activities. More info available from www.bimactive.com

The 18 LBS Challenge Finalists

The 2005 LBS Challenge recognized 18 companies for excellence in the development of location-based solutions. The 18 finalists listed by category were as follows:

Asset Tracking/Field Services:

• Bones in Motion - monitor your fitness goals (www.bonesinmotions.com)
• FieldRanger - automated dispatching of work orders (www.fieldranger.com)
• Intransix - Workout GPS measures how far you can walk, cylce, run (www.intransix.com)

Commerce/Advertising/Buying/Selling

• Astroleap Inc - SmartCoupons enables users to download and share coupons from mobile devices (www.astroleap.com)
• Mobilistings LLC - wireless MLS real estate listings (www.mobilistings.com)
• Smarter Agent Inc - search for homes for sale (www.smarteragent.com)

Gaming/Location-based Imaging

• Blister Entertainment's Torpedo Bay battle game (www.blisterent.com)
• Networks In Motion Inc. - manage photos with location tags and view on a map, send to another device etc... (www.networksinmotion.com)
• uLocate Communications - enables GPS enabled camera users to post, view, and tag phot6os (www.ulocate.com)

Navigation/POI/Traffic

• Appello systems - WISEPILOT transforms a mobile device into a navigation system (www.appello.se)
• Infogation Corp - Provides real-time traffic, wether, and gas prices (www.infogation.com)
• Navstar Technologies Inc. - Voice navigation for hands-free operation (www.navstarinc.com)

Peer to Peer/Find Me

• iContact - find what's cool and hapenning around you (www.icontact.com)
• LOC-AID Technologies LLC - Loc-Aid People enables you to track and find friends and family (www.loc-aid.net)
• Meetroduction LLC - Meetro enables you to wirelessly connect with people that share similar interests (www.meetro.com)

Personal Security

• Clarity Communication Systems Inc - Wherabouts allows parents to track and monitor the location of their children (www.claritycsi.com)
• Soniya Technology - FamilyLink enables  simple access with a cell phone to track and monitor loved onces (www.soniyatech.com)
• Teen Arrive Alive LLC - TAA provides a history of phone locations as well as speed and heading displayed on Navteq maps. Useful for safety and emergency situations (www.teenarrivealive.com)

The LBS Challenge is a fantastic forum for promoting location-based solutions and is a great plug to the industry. Navteq is speculating that more than 300 applications will be entered in next year's contest. Winning companies not only receive recognition and cash but the contest is a great spring board to bigger and better things. Case in point, Networks In Motion, last year's winner has since sold thousands of copies of their award winning application from 2004 - AtlasBook. The company has also recently obtained some $6 million in venture capital financing and a new CEO is now at the helm.

If your interested in registering for the 2006 LBS Challenge, registration will begin in July 2005. Applicants can register with Navteq and also receive some free smaple data for their apps if necessary. The 2006 Challenge will kick of at Wireless IT this fall in San Francisco while final judging and the 2006 awards will take place next spring at CTIA in Las Vegas (April, 2006) - Sponsors are encouraged to contact Robin Jackson at Navteq (312-894-7398).

The LBS Challenge is truly a testament that Location-Based services are coming on strong and will be a driving force in wireless technologies and perhaps more important, helping mobile carriers generate increased ARPU. These awards truly are the Academy Awards of LBS!