Mobile Networks Featured Article

Juniper Research (News - Alert) recently released a new report on mobile services. According to the report, over the past years there has been a remarkable progress in the technical advancement in handset screens, user interfaces, processors, memory and graphics handling technologies. This advancement in technology contributed to the launch of numerous mobile devices from well known vendors with very good specifications, but is expensive when compared to the previous mobile phones which are less technical. Their features, which include GPS, are migrating into the mass market devices step-by-step. Simultaneously, there were great improvements in the unit prices and form factors of GPS. Thus integrated, GPS became available in a more economical and easily designable way.

In the meantime, there was an unbelievable growth in mobile internet adoption. It is expected to provide additional drive to take up local search services which are browser-based.

Dr. Windsor Holden, who is the report author of Juniper Research said that 'The sharing culture of Web 2.0 is increasingly shaping the way many location based services and location enabled apps develop. Social networking application usage has continued to grow at an explosive rate, while mobile driven apps such as Loopt (News - Alert) and Brightkite have extended the Web 2.0 concept further with the introduction of geotagged content.'

In addition to that, Juniper's report states that while browser-based services will rule the local search market, applications purchased through app stores will take an emerging portion of the information services market, especially template apps providing city guides and entertainment guides.

The report from Juniper includes additional information stating that all mobile location-based services may contribute a total revenue of $12.7 billion by 2014. Advertising will encompass a remarkable proportion of total market value; some concerns remain when considering its large-scale viability as a main revenue stream.

Representatives of some of the well-known organizations in the mobile industry have analyzed case studies within this vital area. Juniper Research evaluates the current and future status of mobile location-based services based on interviewing these representatives.