Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
Navigation
Primary Navigation
Home
Singapore
Asia Pacific
World
Business
Entertainment
Sports
Technology
Top Stories
Most Popular
Secondary Navigation
Search
Search:
Mobile carriers answer call for new services
Reuters - Saturday, January 17
By Antony Bruno
DENVER - Wireless carriers appear poised to deliver on what the mobile industry has long seen as its holy grail -- location-based services.
Today's mobile phones can provide remarkably specific location data to their users through a combination of embedded GPS chips and network-based cell-tower data. It's a feature that holds great promise for commercial applications by providing the ability to deliver to mobile phone users information, entertainment and advertising tailored to their location.
Potential applications could be as simple as alerting fans when artists listed as their favorite on Facebook are appearing in their area, or offering them a discount on the album if they walk by a participating record store. Others can be more complicated, such as using music as a filter on mobile location-based dating services, or enabling members of a text-message fan club to find each other at concerts.
There are opportunities for the touring business as well, such as providing directions to a venue where an artist might be playing a surprise show, or less aggressive applications such as listing all the gigs scheduled in a user's immediate area.
Few location-sensitive services have made it to the mass market due to the lack of a common location technology among U.S. wireless carriers and concerns that sharing their customers' location data with a service provider could trigger privacy complaints.
But in the closing months of 2008, two leading carriers made decisive moves to provide location-based services, otherwise known as LBS, to developers in an effort to jump-start the market.
SURGE EXPECTED
Verizon Wireless, which first promised to cooperate with application developers a year ago, said it would provide developers GPS data from three of its Windows Mobile smart phones -- Samsung's Omnia and Saga and HTC's Touch Pro.
Sprint is providing its location data to the aggregators WaveMarket and uLocate, which will then offer it to developers interested in creating applications for their respective platforms. The aggregators say they'll meet Sprint's security and privacy requirements.
Thanks to these moves, industry experts expect to see the number of new LBS applications entering the market each year to surge from a handful to the hundreds.
"If you wanted to launch a location-aware app before, you had to strike a deal with the carrier, which is a brutal process," said Joel Grossman, vice president of marketing and product management for WaveMarket. "That's a hassle not only for developers, but for carriers, because it's not scalable for them. I think you'll see the business pressures on other carriers will lead them to adopt a more open solution as well."
AT&T plans to launch an LBS infrastructure in early 2009, although it has provided no details yet. T-Mobile's plans remain unknown.
What does this mean for the music industry? Grossman said WaveMarket is already working with several labels he declined to identify to develop LBS applications for new album releases and marketing plans.
Label sources admitted that they are only now starting to scratch the surface of any potential LBS applications, which to date revolve mainly around coupons and contests. Jive/Zomba said it is exploring using the technology in an upcoming David Archuleta campaign.
Island Def Jam created an iPhone app for Fall Out Boy that lets members find each other if they want to, something senior vice president of new media and commerce Christian Jorg said could become more common in the year ahead.
"I think we have a better shot this year we're seeing people make a bigger commitment," Jorg said. "We're expanding what we try to do on mobile. It's part of offering more services to make mobile overall more interesting to consumers and more fun."
Reuters/Billboard
Email Story
IM Story
Printable View
Blog This
Recommend this article
Average (0 votes)
Sign in to recommend this article »
Most Recommended Stories »
Related Articles: Technology
Obama refuses to surrender BlackberryAFP - Saturday, January 17
US-TECH SummaryReuters - Saturday, January 17
EU accuses Microsoft of harming browser competitionReuters - Saturday, January 17
Mobile carriers answer call for new servicesReuters - Saturday, January 17
Advanced Micro Devices to cut 1,100 jobs and reduce salariesAFP - Saturday, January 17
Most Popular – Technology
Viewed
Hormone drives sexy women to infidelity, says study
'Dogs don't wear condoms,' says Baywatch star Anderson
Michelle Obama's ball gown has fashionistas abuzz
Israel poised to call unilateral halt to Gaza onslaught
Boy George jailed for 15 months for imprisoning escort
View Complete List »
Search:
Home
Singapore
Asia Pacific
World
Business
Entertainment
Sports
Technology
Top Stories
Most Popular