Alternative location market to reach $8 billion

Telecom Lead India: Precision indoor location market
is expected to achieve $8 billion revenue, as GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and
cellular location technologies will each be installed on over one billion
devices in 2017.

Increasingly, tablet, camera, and portable gaming
vendors are using location to differentiate and support additional services and
revenue models. Others, like the femtocell market, are driven by mandates. To
illustrate the potential, the non-cellular handset market is set to reach over
one billion devices by 2017,” said Patrick Connolly, senior analyst, ABI
Research.

The research firm said that the volumes are in cellular
handsets where hybrids of GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, MEMs, NFC, etc. will provide
increasing levels of accuracy and ubiquity indoors and out, creating the
perfect platform for LBS, location analytics, and hyperlocal advertising.

Also, the firm added that it will place significant control
in the hands of carriers and handset vendors and represents both opportunity
and competition to the precision indoor location market. Already, leading
companies are putting in place the ecosystem to converge the alternative and
precision indoor markets.

The precision indoor market is almost a separate entity
in itself, with over 30 companies offering a variety of different technologies.
By working directly with retailers, these technologies will empower them to own
their own maps, data, and advertising, enabling them to own the customer and
compete with Google, etc,” said Dominique Bonte, practice director.

Ericsson leads global mobile location platforms market, ahead
of Nokia Siemens


In 2011, Ericsson was the leading telecom equipment
vendor in terms of number of contracts for location platforms, ahead of Nokia
Siemens Networks and TeleCommunication Systems.

Annual revenues for mobile location platforms, including
A-GPS servers and middleware platforms, are projected to grow from about $150
million in 2010 to $300 million in 2016.


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