Location Platforms 'Will be €300m Business by 2016'

Interesting article on the huge growth of Location Services for Mobile Platforms by Andy Penfold for Mobile Marketing Magazine in the UK.

Global revenues for mobile location platforms will grow to €300m by 2016, according to a new report from Berg Insight.

The report, called LBS Platforms and Technologies, says that demand will primarily be driven by emergency call and lawful intercept mandates. Annual revenues for mobile location platforms, including A-GPS servers and middleware platforms, are projected to grow from about € 150m in 2010 to € 300m in 2016. Ericsson remains the leading vendor in terms of number of contracts for location platforms, ahead of Nokia Siemens Networks and TeleCommunication Systems, according to the report.

Governments and telecom regulators in many parts of the world are introducing stricter emergency call and lawful intercept mandates that require network operators to invest in location platforms, says the report. Network-based location technologies also have superior indoor coverage and reliability. 

"Location-based services have gained mainstream acceptance, enabled by broader adoption of GPS-enabled smartphones," says André Malm, senior analyst at Berg Insight. "All leading handset vendors provide their own assistance services for GPS handsets to ensure a good user experience in case the operator has not yet deployed A-GPS services."

The report says that commercial LBS are not likely to have a similar impact on the market for location platforms because consumer LBS can rely on alternative location sources including GPS in the handsets, WiFi location and third-party Cell-ID databases. 

LBS Platforms and Technologies is available from the Berg website. A paper copy costs €1,000 (around £870). A PDF of the report for up to five users costs €1,500 (around £1,310), while a corporate license costs €3,000 (around £2,620).

For a preview of the report and to download an order form, click here.

Read the original article here.