Growth in Location-Based Services: Opportunity or Threat for Mobile Operators?

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Although mobile operators continue to lose control over location information with the increased adoption of GPS, the strong growth in global location-based services presents some potentially significant revenue opportunities for them if they focus on the right areas, according to a new report from Pyramid Research (www.pyr.com).

Location-Based Services: Market Forecast, 2011-2015 provides a detailed overview of the current status and size of the location-based services market. It takes a specific look at the positioning of the mobile operators within the value chain and how they can leverage their assets to take a stake in this growing opportunity. Several services are analyzed, but the biggest focus is on navigation, the largest in terms of revenue where various business models are establishing themselves and a range of different players are focusing their efforts, creating a dynamic and fast-changing market segment. Other services such as people finding and local search are also covered. Case studies are provided of operators in all geographic regions to provide a range of different examples and market approaches.

Download an excerpt, or purchase the report here: http://www.pyramidresearch.com/store/Report-Location-Based-Services.htm?sc=PRN060111_RPLBS

"Following many years of high expectations, the location-based services market is finally coming of age. Revenue is expected to reach US$10.3 billion in 2015, up from $2.8 billion in 2010," according to Jan ten Sythoff, Analyst at Large for Pyramid. "There are a number of different factors driving market growth, including increasing GPS and smartphone adoption, success of new business models, continued growth of mobile advertising and the wider coverage and higher speeds of mobile networks," adds ten Sythoff.

Growing adoption of GPS devices is the key driver, helping a whole host of different applications and services to grow. "For mobile operators, this is an opportunity to drive new revenue streams, but it is also a threat because it means access to location information is no longer their monopoly. In 2008 operators gained around 80 percent of all location-based service revenue. This has fallen to around half, but the total market has grown more than fivefold," he says.

Navigation, local search and people-locating services are the key areas for operators to target because this is where we believe they are best positioned. "There are important regional differences in the location-based services market that mobile operators needs to pay attention to," notes ten Sythoff. "Developed markets in APAC with very high GPS penetration, such as Japan and South Korea, are progressive in offering location-based services, people finding and advertising in particular while emerging regions such as Africa & the Middle East and Latin America have much lower GPS and smartphone penetration, and consequently there are fewer opportunities for location-based services," he indicates. Regulatory factors are driving investment into some markets while some operators are launching location-based services to differentiate in competitive markets such as Nigeria.

Location-Based Services: Market Forecast, 2011-2015 is part of Pyramid's research report series, and is priced at $3,495. Download an excerpt, or purchase the report here: http://www.pyramidresearch.com/store/Report-Location-Based-Services.htm?sc=PRN060111_RPLBS.

Contact:
Jennifer Baker, +1-617-871-1910, jbaker@pyr.com

SOURCE Pyramid Research