Hybrid positioning technologies are getting traction
Many new LBS applications such as social networking, local search, pedestrian and mass transit navigation or geo-tagging are expected to be used in places such as indoor or urban canyons where GPS takes forever to have a fix - or never does. Therefore, alternative and hybrid positioning technologies such as Wi-Fi and Cell-ID will become increasingly important to offer a smooth experience to consumers.
“Users expect a seamless and transparent location experience regardless of application or environment,” says ABI Research director Dominique Bonte. “Since no single positioning technology can provide this, the future will be about hybrid positioning systems, combining A-GPS, Cell-ID, Wi-Fi, cellular, motion sensors, and even TV broadcast and proximity technologies such as Bluetooth, NFC and RFID. A-GPS, Wi-Fi and Cell-ID will be the winning combination offering accuracy, availability, interoperability and short fix times at low cost. It will represent 25% of all positioning solutions by 2014. Stand-alone Cell-ID and/or Wi-Fi will remain important in regions with low GPS handset penetration.“
Step by step this market is taking shape. Two announcements made last week are demonstrating it.
First, Skyhook Wireless, the leader in the Wi-Fi positioning space (the Boston-based company powers the iPhone), has upgraded its SDK to include Android support, as well as hybrid positioning (GPS+Cell-ID+Wi-Fi) which offers a comprehensive solution to software developers willing to add location to their mobile applications.
“Users expect a seamless and transparent location experience regardless of application or environment,” says ABI Research director Dominique Bonte. “Since no single positioning technology can provide this, the future will be about hybrid positioning systems, combining A-GPS, Cell-ID, Wi-Fi, cellular, motion sensors, and even TV broadcast and proximity technologies such as Bluetooth, NFC and RFID. A-GPS, Wi-Fi and Cell-ID will be the winning combination offering accuracy, availability, interoperability and short fix times at low cost. It will represent 25% of all positioning solutions by 2014. Stand-alone Cell-ID and/or Wi-Fi will remain important in regions with low GPS handset penetration.“
Step by step this market is taking shape. Two announcements made last week are demonstrating it.
First, Skyhook Wireless, the leader in the Wi-Fi positioning space (the Boston-based company powers the iPhone), has upgraded its SDK to include Android support, as well as hybrid positioning (GPS+Cell-ID+Wi-Fi) which offers a comprehensive solution to software developers willing to add location to their mobile applications.
Navizon’s community
In addition to these public announcements, New-York City-based Navizon has been harnessing the power of its community which nowadays counts over 800,000 members. Indeed, while Skyhook Wireless relies on a fleet of paid drivers that build a Wi-Fi map database, Navizon relies on its members who automatically report and update new Wi-Fi hotspots around the world. Moreover, some of these users are getting money in doing that, because Navizon choosed to reward its most active users. As a result, Navzon has built a decent Wi-Fi and cell-ID data map for cities in emerging or developing markets such as Moscow, St Petersburg, San Paolo, Istanbul, Bangalore or Johannesburg. It might take months - if not years - to Skyhook to get there. But the Boston-based company has the advantage to set its database mapping priority on its own and to have a tighter control over the data.
Google and Microsoft
Google has been building its own reference databases of cell-tower and/or Wi-Fi hotspot locations (called MyLocation) via user-generated content and/or self-learning mechanisms, and is offering it for free to developers. However, Google does not offer any service level agreement, does not disclose its coverage and has loose privacy rules. Microsoft is also starting to show interest in hybrid positioning technologies. Last week the Redmond- based corporation integrated cell tower triangulation into its Live Search Mobile application. It would not be surprising to see Microsoft interested in Wi-Fi positioning too.
If we look at the market as a whole, wireless operators are slowly but surely giving away their primacy over their customer’s location data, now offered as a web service by a wide variety of providers. The range of these providers is growing but there is however a strong barrier of entry: the gathering of Cell-ID and Wi-Fi data on a worldwide scale.
Google has been building its own reference databases of cell-tower and/or Wi-Fi hotspot locations (called MyLocation) via user-generated content and/or self-learning mechanisms, and is offering it for free to developers. However, Google does not offer any service level agreement, does not disclose its coverage and has loose privacy rules. Microsoft is also starting to show interest in hybrid positioning technologies. Last week the Redmond- based corporation integrated cell tower triangulation into its Live Search Mobile application. It would not be surprising to see Microsoft interested in Wi-Fi positioning too.
If we look at the market as a whole, wireless operators are slowly but surely giving away their primacy over their customer’s location data, now offered as a web service by a wide variety of providers. The range of these providers is growing but there is however a strong barrier of entry: the gathering of Cell-ID and Wi-Fi data on a worldwide scale.
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Tuesday 20th January 2009
Ludovic Privat
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