It’s been a big year for location-based applications and services. The release of Apple’s 3G iPhone and Apps Store has given millions of consumers their first access to LBS products. And the movement is being further pushed along by T-Mobile’s G1 and other touchscreen smart phones that use the LBS-enabling Android operating system.
Next year, look for established players to continue developing their revenue models, while more competitors start up, drawn to the new opportunities. Here’s our list of five location-based service providers or application developers to keep an eye on in 2009 (in alphabetical order):
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So far the company has raised a little over $1 million in funding, and while May wouldn’t say if it’d be looking to raise another, he did say it’ll work on monetizing the social network in 2009. It recently launched Brightkite Wall, a Twitter-like platform extension that displays real-time user updates and will likely be licensed to enterprise partners. Also, May said the company is working on an ad-serving platform that will help monetize both its mobile platform and dot-com platform that receives roughly 200, 000 unique visitors per month.
Mexens Technology
Mexens Technology will be up to some interesting things in 2009. Chief executive Cyril Houri told me that the company is working on a non-GPS positioning system that will work indoors. He didn’t elaborate too much but did reveal that it will most likely be offered to medical emergency first responders in order to locate the exact position of a person in a building. The seven-person company, profitable since the beginning of 2008, will also be looking for carriers to pick up Mobifindr, an application that can locate a lost phone and alert you to it via SMS. Known more for practicality than coolness, Mexens Technology is also expanding its Alert system, which currently lets you define geographic regions and receive an alert when, for example, a friend enters the region. This represents a first foray into home control. For example, Navizon Alert will be able to set up a ‘geofence’ 3 miles from your home, capable of doing things like activating your air conditioning when you cross the fence.
Orbster
In a conversation with company president Georg Broxtermann this week, he said that GPS Mission will soon be available for both the iPhone and Android-based T-Mobile G1. He also said that a recently-raised third round of financing will be used to continue development of a “real blockbuster” LBS game the company is working on. Though a firm believer in the possibilities of hyper-local advertising, Broxtermann told me that the company plans to make money by offering virtual goods in 2009.
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Sense Networks
When I was talking to company chief executive Greg Skibiski the other day, he told me about how some of the company’s private investors (hedge fund managers) were able to use taxi cab traffic coming to and leaving from a giant retailer in order to estimate the store’s earnings, using the Macrosense platform. The investors were so confident they placed money on the predicted earnings before Wall Street announced them. They made a pile of money. This success is indicative of the possibilities this type of data analysis could bring to mobile social networking and advertising.
Whrrl
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In a chat with Holden, he told me he has the know-how to transfer this type of system to the Whrrl platform. Judging by Amazon’s success in delivering appropriate product matches to users — if you don’t know what I mean, try it out — Holden and his team could likely develop a similarly effective geo-targeted advertising platform for Whrrl. He didn’t disclose too much to me when I talked to him, so I’m not sure if this will roll out in 2009, but he did reveal the company will attempt to monetize the platform by selling virtual goods.
Facebook And MySpace
Neither of the social networking behemoths have implemented geolocation into either web platforms or mobile apps. While neither company would disclose their future plans in this regard, if either were to implement location-awareness in 2009 they would devastate the location-based social networking industry. No other social network is even close to achieving the same user base as these two.
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Others
There are a few other companies to look out for in the next year, though I won’t detail them here for brevity’s sake. Loopt, uLocate Communications, and Skyhook Wireless are all firmly on my radar, and I’m sure we’ll see substantial growth from each in 2009.
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