At CTIA Wireless 2007 in Orlando, Florida there was no doubt that LBS was hot… plain and simple. Perhaps it’s not the killer app [yet]; however, it is one hot topic at the show with LBS on the tongues of many and LBS at the center of many discussions. To reinforce just how hot LBS is, Navteq once again took center stage announcing the winners of this year’s LBS Challenge.

Congratulations goes out to Comvue Media Inc (Vancouver, BC) for their PocketCaster™ GPS application which took top honors in the competition and walked away with $50K in cash (and $10k for winning the Business Application category) +$100k in Navteq data licenses. The application is designed to take advantage of camera phones (video) with integrated GPS capabilities (like the new Nokia N95). Simply put, the app enables simple, one-button mobile web casting where the user can stream video live to a web server while the application also embeds data, time, and geopositioning information into the video stream. The user’s location can be tracked and viewed dynamically on a mashup (like a Google map) or with Navteq data while the video is streaming and the user location is continually updated. Comvue is the developer of the popular Comvue PocketCaster application, enabling users to stream live video to websites, blogs, or other web apps. See http://www.comvu.com/

The "GISuser guys" get the skinny on the winning application from ComVu

In my mind, from what I saw and heard during the week, LBS is truly hot and up-and-coming... perhaps its not THE “killer app” but there’s no question, LBS is indeed a hot topic… think otherwise and you’re out to lunch! On the show floor, location-enabled apps and solutions were everywhere. Visiting booths from the likes of Tele Atlas, Autodesk, ESRI, and even Nokia and you were presented with material and information about their developer programs – all offering developers tools, APIs, and SDKs to help get up and running with location-based services and application. At the LBS Challenge there were some 344 developer entries this year – that’s up from 256 at last year’s Challenge! At a developer panel I attended with several major US carriers being represented the following question was asked to the panel… “What are the hot enterprise applications in demand”? The rep from Verizon Wireless quickly responded without hesitation… LBS.

Getting back to the LBS Challenge, this recent event marks the 4th year that the popular event has taken place, with Winston Guillory, Navteq Senior VP of Consumer & Enterprise acting as host and MC for the event. Prior to announcing the winners, Guillory provide a brief update on the company’s (Navteq) role in the LBS space. To date the company boasts users in some 60 countries on 6 continents, they have more than 600 geographic analysts driving the roads in an effort to update and maintain the company’s massive database – each drive crew collects data updates the roads database with some 200 attributes. Perhaps most important though, are the company’s 90 million+ consumer touch points every day! That’s right; 90 million people touch and use Navteq data in some form each and every day. Guillory attributes the company’s swelling usage to a number of reasons, including the usage of LBS applications on many different devices (not just limited to PDAs any longer), the explosive, viral use of LBS application, and perhaps most important, the key role that maps and location content play in new applications. LBS applications are typically serving several key market segments; these can be categorized as navigation, entertainment, social networks, and business – coincidentally (or not) the LBS Challenge recognizes winners for creating compelling applications in each of these 4 segments.

A little more on the state of the LBS industry:
Consumer usage of LBS-enabled apps is growing rapidly, with the most popular use being maps and directions, location search, nearby entertainment location, and perhaps the most highly anticipated segment (as seen and heard at the CTIA conference) LBS gaming. Driving the uptake of Location services are the growing number of GPS-enabled phones, with GSM devices like the Nokia N95 and 6610 “navigator” now penetrating the space (finally). The ever increasing important of local search (i.e. what’s near me) as well ass community and content sharing is also propelling the demand and usage of location in the mobile arena – think about it. Just imagine what you can do when your cell phone knows exactly where you are and then shares that location with applications and services!

Back to the Challenge

Marc Naddell, Navteq VP noted that this years LBS challenge had 344 application developers registered. Of interest, roughly one third of the developers were from each of the 3 major Global market regions, EMEA, Asia Pacific, and North America. Navteq’s reason for hosting the competition is quite simple… easing the development burden placed on developers and driving the commercialization of applications – indeed it appears that that have done just that. The contest was open to any developer; provide that their submitted application is not yet commercially available. The bait was a prize pool valued at roughly $2 million.

Registration is up, way up… again!

Registration has grown steadily over the past 4 years:
2007 – 344
2006/05 – 256
2004/05 – 182
2003/04 – 42
No surprise that registration has grown steadily, particularly when you consider that maps and directions currently account for roughly 33% of mobile application downloads by revenue. Consumer usage and consumption of location-aware applications has grown steadily with directions, location search, nearby entertainment finders, and LBS gaming are all on the upswing and growing in popularity. Much of the driving force for the popularity of Location-aware apps is the growing number of GPS-enabled devices coming to market. Additionally, the popularity of local search and community content sharing on the Internet has been viral and spread the demand to the mobile space.

Contest Judging & the Winners

Judging is done by a group of mobile industry executives from leading names like Nokia, AT&T, Bain Capital, Helio, Motorola, and Sprint. Applications were judged in 4 categories: Business Apps, Entertainment & Leisure, Navigation, and Social Networking.

The overall LBS Challenge winner was selected from the following group of semi-finalists – 4 from each category:

Business Apps:

- MRewards – developed by Astroleap, this application rewards consumers for their use of directional data. www.astroleap.com
- PocketCaster GPS (ComVu Media Inc) – designed to enable quick, one button mobile webcasting, encouraging the consumption of photos and videos from camera phones. Video is streamed and viewed dynamically on a map display. www.comvu.com – Winning Application in the Business Category
- LBSNow is an application that shows users their proximity to businesses of services – www.lbsnow.com
- Mobile GPS home and apartment search from Smarter Agent is a clever application that enables users to search for home listings using their cell phone. See www.smarteragent.com

Entertainment & Leisure

- GeoChief from TikGames enables players to create blogs, track routes, and navigate. Powered by Autodesk - See www.tikgames.com – Winning app in the Entertainment & Leisure Category
- Location-aware M-Commerce platform is for users who need to find, reserve, and purchase travel and entertainment services. Powered by Openwave - See www.w-planit.com
- Wuh-sup combines personal preferences with location to provide a mobile concierge service to users. Search, reference, and build agendas. Powered by deCarta. See www.wuh-sup.com
- Wall Street Fighter from YDreams Entertainment puts you in a world of business for an exciting location-based game experience. Powered by Knowledgeware. See www.ydreams.com

Navigation

- Ioto is an LBS solution for selling transportation services between POIs. Self-powered app, see www.ioto.com
- Parkwhiz provides users with mobile parking information. Users can get location-aware information on parking like availability, directions, hours, prices, and more. Powered by Autodesk, see www.parkwhiz.com - Winning application in the Navigation category
- SpotKask is a very clever solution from 1023software powered by deCarta. SpotKast will push helpful, relevant information to your phone based on your present location. Wherever you are, have instant access to a local directory of recommended businesses. Wonder if any web sites or blogs have anything to say about where you are standing? See SpotKast.com or www.ten23software.com
- Car Finder, an Autodesk powered solution from Zeetoo Inc. Never get lost in that parking lot again! This application stores your vehicles location on your mobile device. When you press the “unlock” button when you return near your vehicle directions will be sent to your phone to guide you to the vehicle’s exact location… cool, no more walking aimlessly around the West lot at DIA searching for my car!

Social Networking Category

- Beacon is an ESRI –powered solution from duzine.com LLC. This application automatically records and map’s the user’s location. On a website users can provide additional details about themselves and even publish their locations to a MySpace account, blog, upload photos and more. See www.dusine.com
- Milogo from Eloquor is another Autodesk-powered application. This solution acts as a friend-finder service and works across wireless carriers. The application serves Navteq maps and shows the location of friends and colleagues on the user’s cell phone. Once connected the user can communicate with the friend via txt. See www.elloqor.com
- Activepilot from Jentro Technologies GmbH is powered by PTV. This application, supporting most Java phones, acts as a sensor for generating traffic flow information through its users. See www.jentro.com – activepilot was selected as the winner of the Social networking category
- Loopt is a very slick friend-finder app powered by deCarta. Using this solution, users can track their friend’s location on maps right from their mobile handset. It also enables users to share messages and send auto notification updates when a friend is nearby.

Judging was conducted by a diverse group of mobile industry professionals. The criteria for selection was the bundling of unique functionality and features as well as special attention being paid to the ease of use – it should be noted that “ease of use” has been frequently billed at this year’s CTIA as being the new “killer app”.. Clearly it is vital for the success of any mobile application.

ComVu developers are presented with the Cheque for their Grand Prize winning application

Glenn’s LBS Challenge Selections & Special Recognition

So what did I think was cool? Well, here’s a few of my own personal “awards” and special recognition:
- Coolest name… definitely Wuh-Sup… brings back memories of the old beer commercial doesn’t it?
- Cool Geotagging – no doubt about it, loopt is all about social networking, however, I love the way the app enables users to geotag and share digital photos… I can’t get enough use out of my camera phone and this kind of app will make using it even better.
- Opportunity to extend application… ParkWhiz definitely fills a demand, however, imagine this (especially you parents)… how about Park & whiz? Imagine an LBS-centric solution that not only helps you locate parking but also points you to convenient and clean restrooms… sounds like a winner to me!
- Coolest LBS gadget… Zeetoo (the guys who developed the “key fob” that helps you locate your parked vehicle also have a very slick wireless controller (think joystick) that communicates with your mobile via Bluetooth. Use the gadget to navigate apps running on your device or as a joystick for mobile games… pretty clever!
- Best way to drive ARPU... no doubt the winning app. – PocketCaster GPS. With so many camera-enabled smart phones in use users are craving uses beyond simply uploading their youTube videos. This app takes mobile video streaming to a whole new level… watching your video stream on top of a map is just the icing on the cake. Imagine watching your fiend’s video from the ski slope thousands of miles away… add to that you see their track laid on top of a map… I love it!
- Coolest app… there’s no question in my mind; I was “wowed” by SpotKast from 1023software. I know it runs on Blackberry (which I don’t own); however, the concept is way cool and was a very clever and intuitive way to keep you informed of location-aware news and updates. Particularly cool was their “SpotPost” concept. Users can leave notes (or whatever they want... files, images, MP3s, or ??) and the post is geocoded to your location. Imagine reading restaurant reviews while you stand in line waiting for that little electronic coaster to light up… WOW!
- LBS M.I.A, no doubt this one goes to Openwave… was there actually anyone from Openwave present at the LBS Challenge? If there was you were pretty discrete. Too bad since there was several openwave=powered apps in the finals including the winning application from ComVu Media. The table stand with your name and empty literature holder was a visible oops.
- Honorable Mention... Navteq. For getting a larger room this year!

Navteq is clearly focused on easing the development burdens placed on developers of location-based services. Their commitment to the LBS Challenge has helped drive the commercialization of LBS. Congratulations to Navteq, the Challenge sponsors, and to all the participants.

I can’t wait for the next LBS Challenge… perhaps I’ll get to the Euro Challenge next year at 3GSM and maybe the north American Challenge will see 500 entries. Regardless, the Navteq LBS Challenge has done more for developers and carriers than anything I can think of in recent years. The real prizes yet to be dolled out include venture capital funding and lucrative contracts from the carriers… no doubt we’ll be reading news on these topics in the near future – follow LBSzone.com for the latest news updates from companies chasing the LBS carrot.

Some “LBS” Observations and relevant industry comments made at CTIA:

CTIA Wireless 2007 – there’s no doubt about it, content is still king… however, simplicity and ease of use are indeed “the killer app”. That was the message presented in sessions, demonstrations, panel discussions, and meetings at North America’s recent wireless industry convention. Some of the key impressions I took away from the event include the following:

mobile content is king and the industry (and users) are craving more mobile content – in particular entertainment.

Application developers have plenty of opportunities, although the competition is brisk. Simple to use, intuitive applications are what people want. Make it functional, entertaining, useful, and simple.

Location-based services and applications are hot and in demand. Think about it, there were more than 340 entries in this year’s North American LBS Challenge. Looking to get your LBS app on a device? Think social networking, community building, entertainment, and gaming… these appear to be the LBS services that are of greatest interest (to carriers and end users)

GPS-enabled devices are coming on strong. 

Developing applications for a variety of handsets, operating systems, and languages is still a challenge. It’s still quite amazing to see many applications that have been created to run solely on one application or even one device.

LBSChallenge Global Sponsor, Nokia announced the N95 just prior to the CTIA event. The device ships with integrated GPS and kick's off Nokia's commitment to location-enabled devices. 5 MB digital camera, high quality video, integrated GPS, spanky webbrowsing, and much more. Here's some specs from Nokia - Dual slide functionality, 5 megapixel camera, Carl Zeiss optics, DVD-like video, connect wirelessly to the internet, integral GPS & mapping functionality, 2.6" display, media player, personalize your device with downloadable applications, widgets and RSS feeds - devices like this will drive the uptake of LBS... no doubt!

These are but a few of the topics that stuck out in my mind after taking in 3 days at CTIA. Here are more samplings of items that got my attention and may get you thinking about the direction you want to take as you develop apps and services for the mobile space heading into 2008:

• China – explosive usage – 25 new customers every second - 30% of cellphone users in China use smartphones.. this compares to about 7% in the USA!
• US usage at about 75%
• 93% of mobile users surveyed by mywireless.org are satisfied with current service provider
• 68% believe government regulation on wireless will make services more costly
• The new killer app… ease of use. Bringing together the 3 screens.
• Demand for speed and data. Usage of data apps for business has soared $7.2 B usage in 2006… data usage is exploding. Today 1 in 5 users uses data. 45% of youth are mobile data users.
• Mobile banking is also coming on and is in high demand.
• 40% of population frequently looks for directions on web
• Note: local search is expected to grow 282% in next 5 years. Great as only 15% of cell phone users use data services.
• A tip to Developers, avoid navigation services (saturated) maybe look at social networking or location-based games as an option.
• Location isn’t a service, it’s a service enabler.

To stay informed about the LBS Challenge and future contests see www.lbschallenge.com