New Generation Smartphones: New Generation LBS Infrastructure
By Alexis • Nov 26th, 2008 • Category: UncategorizedDespite the bad economic climate there has been great enthusiasm in the handset-based navigation and location based services (LBS) market because of the arrival of new GPS-enabled handhelds. Smartphones like the Apple iPhone, the BlackBerry Storm, the T-Mobile G1, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X1 are creating a broad scope for the next generation GPS services. This is driving the third party LBS application developers and the carriers that support LBS infrastructure to support the most demanded Secure User Plane Location (SUPL)-compliant Assisted GPS functionality.
The new LBS infrastructure is set to offer unprecedented global positioning services on mobile phones, such as Enhanced Cell-of-Origin and Uplink-Time Difference of Arrival (U-TDOA), either as assistance or as a fallback option for GPS. Global vendors like Ericsson, TCS, NSN, Andrews, TruePosition, Redknee, Openwave, Polaris Wireless and Autodesk will be offering such services in the form of Mobile Location Centers (MLCs), Position Determining Equipment (PDE) and Location Enabling Servers (LES).
According to Dominique Bonte, ABI Research director, “Handset technology finally offers the LBS user experience consumers have been waiting for. Large touch screen displays are the most natural interface for engaging with map-based LBS applications, as demonstrated by the success of Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs).”
Tags for this article: mobile, smartphones
