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Nov 2006.
LBS is entering new growth cycle; mobile operators committing to location services

"We're seeing clear signs that mobile operators are ready to invest or re-invest in their mobile platforms and applications." This is what Pablo Colom, Genasys President and CEO, had to say when asked for his observations on the current state of the LBS market. Genasys is an LBS infrastructure and applications provider delivering location solutions to mobile operators since 1999.

Mr. Colom explains, "When Genasys entered the LBS sector back in 1999, there was a lot of hype and hope surrounding the future of location based mobile services. We entered the market introducing our location enabling server called Genasys Positioning Platform (GPP). After a few initial installations, interest in building location infrastructures seemed to stall. Looking back, we can see clearly that the services that were launched back then achieved only moderate success, due in part to the fact that location was assigned lower priority by operators at a time when other mobile services were growing fast and furious. This resulted in a general lack of awareness among the subscribers which also limited the success of the LBS services. "

"Now, however, with the advent of 3G networks and the proliferation of advanced handsets with bigger screens, more memory, and other sophisticated features, the time is ripe for location services to see wider uptake. It's also useful to point out that the popularity of GPS navigation helps to increase understanding and awareness of position-based services."

Genasys has recently launched LBS applications for clients in Mexico and Australia, and won another two clients for its GPP platform. "Competition these days is fierce and the challenges are greater for smaller, niche vendors like Genasys. But we compete with big names regularly and win, mostly due to the proven reliability of our platform and its technical superiority. We're extremely proud of that."

When asked about applications most likely to see success in the coming years, Mr. Colom is circumspect. "I am confident that personal navigation and local information will become popular tools for mobile subscribers and mobile advertising that uses a positioning certainly holds great promise. However, we see potential for much more, especially for big name Web-based services like dating sites and social networks. But only time will tell if they will take advantage of location-based mobile applications to extend their reach."