At the CTIA Wireless event in Las Vegas, NAVTEQ held the award ceremonies for their 6th LBS Challenge, a competition designed to stimulate interest in location services and encourage developers to create innovative location-aware applications. We look at the state of LBS, the TOP apps, the winners, and our own top picks!
Once again the developers delivered as a record number of entries were received (well over 300 I would guess), and NAVTEQ also delivered - to the tune of $5.5 mill in prizes and data licenses! NAVTEQ backed this up by reporting that this year they saw a 28% increase in the number of registered developers so there's no denying that location is definitely on the mind of mobile developers and that putting "L" in mobile apps is a big play in the mobile ecosystem right now.
Prior to announcing the Challenge winners we heard some compelling numbers about the state of LBS and the mobile ecosystem in general. If the numbers are any indication, the future may be very bright for mobile developers, particularly those interested in creating location-aware apps (support for mobile ads is also a hot prospect as well). Of interest, in just the 4Q of 2008 mobile content revenues surpassed $8 billion with 1/3 of that coming from application sales (kudos to Apple, Android Market and now Blackberry) and apparently, approx. 70% of these applications were location aware. Is it any wonder why the LBS Challenge has been such a big hit?
With 2009 being the 6th year for the NAVTEQ LBS Challenge, we've seen some interesting trends in apps as they've come and gone. For example, it was noted that in 2006 navigation was the hot ticket in LBS, while in 2007 developers focused more on gaming, later in 2008 niche targets were more commonplace. This year it seemed that many developers opted to focus applications on having capabilities for generating advertising revenues - many of the apps feature capabilities that will be attractive to those interested in mobile advertising. Perhaps this was no surprise as recent research has shown that end-users are growing more receptive to ads on their mobile, also, click-through rates tend to be much higher than traditional web ads and CPM billing rates are also higher for mobile - Kaching$! Finally, the trend for the Euro LBS developer this year has been to focus on enviro-friendly or "green" mobile apps and services.
I did notice that the number of attendees (i.e. Full seats) at this year's NAVTEQ award ceremony seemed to be down somewhat compared to previous years (I didn't have a photographer's head in all my photos this year either ;0) nice! A drop in attendance was no huge surprise, however, given the current economic climate and given that overall attendance at CTIA appeared to be waaaay down this year as well - mind-you, with $30 hotel rooms and $100 flights to Vegas a trip to CTIA and the LBS Challenge this year was well worth it! NAVTEQ pointed out that developer interest in this year's competition was way up once again with many more developers submitting apps and looking for a pay day and some well deserved recognition. It's no wonder though, as it turns out that over the years some 30% of semi-finalists in the Challenge have gone on to receive some form of funding for their apps (think Gypsii, liveast, NIM). No question that planning to submit an entry in this competition can really pay off. ideally you'd think that there would be more than 500 entries - perhaps next year!
And so, the semi-finalists recognized at this year's LBS Challenge:
Azinfo by CellSoul - for those interested in locating a Moslem nearby, users are also provided with their location info, timing of prayers and more info on Mosques. http://www.cellsoul.com
ToGetThere (Colombia Games) and enviro-friendly app designed to connect people that want to ride-share and build their community. http://www.columbiagames.com
Rough Guides Mobile Travel Guides - location-aware guide with user-generated content and integrated social networking. http://www.creativitysoftware.net
Hollywood USA - GPS guided tour to nearby film locations. Provides movie info, location details, and scrapes Hollywood news about that location - users can also put themselves in a seen (via photo) and Tweet! http://www.hollywood-usa.mobi
DialPlus - enhanced phone call experience, provides contextually relevant information about a called part before, during or after a call. http://www.dialplus.net
Gr8usedcar (duzine Inc) fast access to used vehicle information inn your local area. Click to call, comparisons, prices, maps, compare cars etc. http://www.duzine.com
Where Is My Car - park your car, set your location, get navigation (routing) back to your vehicle http://www.dimensionsinfosys.com
Dimdix (HS Latin America) social tool for connecting you with people nearby http://www.dimdix.com
Trulia Real Estate Search (Lightpole inc) find real estate listings nearby along with relevant information http://www.lightpole.net
LociSmartMidlet - localized and personal content provided to users based on their preferences http://www.locismart.com
Taxi4Me - an interesting mobile taxi brokering service where taxi companies make an offer of time and rate on a ride. Send a request, get a quote and accept offer using your mobile. http://www.asp.ee
Traffic Share - mobile traffic information sharing where users report congestion, accidents and other incidents simply by pushing a button on the mobile and storing location. http://www.trafficzag.com
Urbanware Parking (Urban Mapping) provides users in need of off street parking with availability, location, rates, entrance location etc. ideally suitable to be incorporated into existing navigation apps. http://www.urbanmapping.com
Yojo Mama (Yojo Mobile) is a mobile parent helping app providing local search results commonly needed by active parents - kid friendly search results are ensured, backed up by an active user community. http://www.yojomama.com
Applications came from developers inn many geographic regions, most having potential for revenues, many potentially derived by mobile advertising (urbanware parking is a good example) others having good opportunities for paid content or enhanced listings (Yojo Mama, Trulia search), others offer opportunities simply by the ability to derive widespread usage from a huge audience (CellSoul). Finally, with the launch of popular mobile marketplaces by most leading handset vendors (Blackberry, Apple, Nokia Ovi) coupled with widespread adoption of GPS enabled smartphones by the consumer, the potential for revenues derived by application sales (particularly the $1 app) is a very lucrative market that should drive innovation and widespread adoption of LBS apps into 2010.
And the Winners are....
Applications selected as winners of the LBS Challenge were:
Winner: Taxi4Me (from t+1 Solutions)
1st runner up - DialPlus - a nice tie-in of mobile contacts to social media
2nd runner up - Rough Guides Mobile Travel Guides - interesting mix of travel info, user generated content, and social networking.
3d runner up - ToGetThere (Columbia Games) riding the wave of popularity of green apps!
T+1 Solutions' Application Taxi4me - Winner of the 2009 LBS Challenge (Americas)
So, why chase the LBS market in North America? Consider this. Currently there are more than 270 mobile subscribers, they accumulate more than 2.2 trillion minutes of usage, they sent over 1 trillion txt messages in 2008, and accounted for some $620 billion in mobile derived revenues in 08. Smartphones are becoming ever more common in usage and there's no doubt, this mobile workhorses stimulate usage and account for higher ARPU, not to mention that they enable rapid search, discovery and download (or purchase) of applications. Slim, Java enabled lightweight mobile devices have been replaced by their mobile savvy, always-connected owners by slick touch devices (iPhone 3G, G1, Blackberry Bold, Nokia 5800 or E71x) with loads of memory, fast processors, and data hungry owners - indeed the future is bright for LBS.
Finally, my personal favorites from the Challenge and LBSzone top LBS picks:
#1 Urbanware Parking - excellent potential for ad revenues and providing a valuable service that many users would pay for.
#2 Hollywood USA - innovative and fun, this app provides information that many people ask for - there's much potential for revenue from several channels.
#3 Trulia Real Estate Search - the real estate market and mobile apps are made for each other - Trulia has a vast community and great information available making this a perfect app that many would pay for - potential for ads is huge.
#4 Yojo Mama - local information for parents on the go is a perfect demographic. Opportunities for ad revenues and mobile coupons are huge with this app.
