Location-based mobile services take off

Location-based services for mobiles have fared poorly so far, but are now growing steadily, according to Juniper Research.

The company found that the market is currently worth $1bn but said that the figure will rise to $8.5bn by the end of 2010.

The largest geographic market will be Asia Pacific, with Europe and North America second and third respectively.

"There are still significant challenges for all participants in mobile location-based services, but in the first half of 2005 the future is looking much better than it did 12 months ago," said Bruce Gibson, senior analyst at Juniper Research.

"2.5G and 3G network rollouts are gathering pace all over the world, positioning technology is rapidly maturing, business models are evolving and, most crucially, the user experience is improving rapidly.

"More and more mobile operators are finding that their customers expect mobile location-based services to be available."

Juniper Research believes that the biggest growth sector will be in the corporate arena because these companies will pay for services that improve efficiency.

Once the market takes off, price competition between vendors will bring costs down to consumer levels.

However, there are still problems on the horizon. Privacy concerns continue to dog the market, and international roaming and network compatibility need to be improved.

"This new reality should ensure that the market for mobile location-based services shows a steady development path to maturity, rather than taking the mobile data market by storm as was predicted five years ago," explained Gibson.