Growing Demand For Location-based Services (lbs) In Advanced Mobile Markets

< BACK TO TELECOMMUNICATION starstarstarstarstar   Science - Telecommunication Press Release
25th November 2008, 03:09pm - Views: 1146





Science Telecommunication Frost & Sullivan 1 image

Science Telecommunication Frost & Sullivan 2 image




Growing Demand for Location-based Services (LBS) in Advanced Mobile

Markets



SINGAPORE, /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --


       - Japan and South Korea lead in adoption of LBS -


    Location-based services (LBS) in Asia-Pacific are expected to see strong growth in the

next five years, with wider adoption in the more advanced and saturated mobile and mobile

data markets.


    (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081117/FSLOGO)


    New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.wireless.frost.com), Asia Pacific Location-

based Services Highlights, finds that the mobile LBS market covering 13 Asia-Pac countries

earned revenues of US$383.6 million in 2007 and expects this to reach US$2.8 billion by

end-2013, at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 39.3 percent (2007-2013).


    If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides service providers,

vendors/manufacturers, end users, and other industry participants with an overview of the

Asia-Pacific LBS market, then send an e-mail to Sarah Lourdes at sarah.lourdes@frost.com,

with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail

address. Upon receipt of the above information, an overview will be sent to you by e-mail.


    Japan and South Korea are the leading adopters of LBS -- respectively accounting for 49.5

percent (US$190 million) and 43 percent (US$165 million) of the total Asia-Pac revenues in

2007.


    "Concerns regarding privacy infringement, erroneous detection and interoperability issues,

high roaming charges, and the lack of global positioning system (GPS)-enabled handsets

have to a large extent thwarted large-scale deployment of LBS systems in most Asia-Pac

countries other than Japan and South Korea," says Frost & Sullivan senior industry analyst

M. Kumaresan.


    LBS in the rest of Asia-Pac have largely remained a niche offering until recently with the

more mature mobile markets of Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan

experimenting with such differentiated value-added services in an attempt by operators to

sustain revenues. "In these countries, however, the demand for LBS will be driven mainly by

enterprise users for applications like fleet tracking and asset management, unlike Japan and

South Korea where the appetite for consumer LBS applications is high," Kumaresan says.


    "Apart from the sophistication of LBS technologies and available services, the popularity of

LBS solutions is also determined by lifestyle and consumer behavioural patterns, which have

a huge impact on market dynamics. Subscribers in these two markets are accustomed to

using such services for location-based proximity and entertainment-centric applications," he

elaborates, adding that community creation, child-locator services, crime-preventive LBS and

other such innovative applications are expected to be more prevalent in Japan and South

Korea moving forward.


    Kumaresan believes that the increased bandwidth and ubiquitous network coverage

across the region is expected to fuel the growth of LBS. "The deployment of high-speed

packet access (HSPA) and impending WiMAX networks, and the already advanced mobile

broadband technologies are expected to serve as catalysts in the adoption of LBS," he says.


    In the near term, however, he says that operators in the developing markets with low

mobile penetration are likely to focus on adding new subscribers and driving data traffic with

basic mobile data services.

Science Telecommunication Frost & Sullivan 3 image


    Although he explains, "Given the huge popularity of peer-to-peer and personalized SMS,

personalized push-based content by location information will be a key driver towards mass

adoption of LBS-type applications.


    "Integrating LBS applications with mobile advertising is also a potentially attractive revenue

model that operators would be looking to adopt," Kumaresan adds.


    He notes, however, that the LBS value chain is currently fragmented with numerous

participants. The typical LBS ecosystem comprises geographic information service (GIS) or

map providers, application developers, content providers and aggregators, merchants and

advertisers, platform and infrastructure vendors, handset manufacturers, and mobile

operators.


    Learning from the Japanese and Korean experience, a conducive ecosystem is one with

mash-up offerings. Kumaresan believes that over time the value chain will evolve region-

wide, with integrated service and content providers. "Japan and South Korea are expected to

lead in developing a comprehensive business case and commercial model that can

eventually be replicated across the region," he concludes.


    The Asia Pacific Location-based Services Highlights study is part of the Mobile and

Wireless Growth Partnership Service program, which also includes research in the following

markets: WiMAX, emerging mobile markets, mobile advertising, mobile broadband and

mobile content. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market

opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews

with market participants. Analyst interviews are available to the press.



    Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, partners with clients to accelerate their

growth. The company's TEAM Research, Growth Consulting and Growth Team Membership

empower clients to create a growth-focused culture that generates, evaluates and

implements effective growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan employs over 45 years of experience

in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment

community from more than 30 offices on six continents. For more information about Frost &

Sullivan's Growth Partnerships, visit http://www.frost.com




     Contact:

     Sarah Lourdes

     Corporate Communications - Asia Pacific

     P: +603.6207.1030

     E: sarah.lourdes@frost.com




SOURCE: Frost & Sullivan


   

CONTACT:  Sarah Lourdes, 

                     Corporate Communications - Asia Pacific of Frost & Sullivan,               

        +603-6207-1030, 

                     sarah.lourdes@frost.com


    Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081117/FSLOGO




To view this and other AsiaNet releases please visit http://www.asianetnews.net






news articles logo NEWS ARTICLES
Contact News Articles |Remove this article