Another LBSZone Alert has been released... enjoy this edition for the latest developments in Location-based services.  

Hello from the Spatial Media LBSzone... Ok, like everyone else on the planet, I'll start off by mentioning this week's announcement of the iPhone 2 (actually called the iPhone 3G) - see some specs and a cool video here). It's hard not to ignore this device, particularly for developers adding location-aware capabilities to their application. As could be expected, Apple this week informed the World that iPhone2 will come on June 11, and as can be expected, this device will sport GPS (A-GPS actually). I still can't figure out for the life of me why R1 didn't have this capability but no worry, it only took a year to add the technology to support the most sought after capabilities desired in mobile... Location & Presence.

Maps and social networking are indeed the hottest technologies these days, however, when you toss in the capability for the device and app to know exactly where you are, the possibilities are HUGE - just take a look at the apps entered in the recent NAVTEQ LBS Challenge, last week's Nokia code Camp competition, and the recent Tele Atlas LBS Innovators Series Event - if these apps don't WOW you then I'm not sure what will! So back to Apple and iPhone 2... now that consumers are presented with a GPS-enabled smartphone easily accessible in North America, could this be the device that really kicks off LBS to the N.A consumer?? I think it just might be.

Most of you know that I'm a fan of the Nokia N95 (8GB), however, this device, along with other location-aware Nokia smartphones has yet to make a dent in the N.A market (an estimated 4% marketshare here), likely because of the difficulty of getting them into the hands of consumers at a reasonable cost. It's really too bad... I look at my device and the Apps folder is chock full of way cool, location aware apps like widgets from WHERE, Boopsie, Sports Tracker,Slifter, Earthcomber, Cellspin, Lightpole and a few others. No doubt most of these apps will available to the users of the iPhone 3G. Are you going to get a new iPhone? If so why and what do you plan on using it for? I'd like to hear from you. Oh, finally, a colleague is searching for a mobile app developer skilled in Symbian App dev and perhaps BREW as well. For more on this contract opp contact me for details (glenn at gisuser.com. 
 

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