Archive for June, 2010

Identifying people, objects and data by their geographical location has always been crucial, though it has provided limited commercial value. However, the rapid evolution and commoditisation of the communication services technologies has led the way to the development of this activity as a business opportunity. One way to identify the data and objects by their physical location is by geotagging them – the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as photographs, video, websites, RDF or RSS feeds and is a form of geospatial metadata.

Geotagging has emerged as a new market opportunity within the rapidly growing LBS and UGC markets. As the LBS market grows, the number of geotagging applications and platforms being launched around its ecosystem is increasing. The Location-Based Services and Location- Based Advertising markets have grown in importance over past few years. Evidence of this growth lies in sectoral M & A activity, where almost all the big players i. e. Google, Nokia, Microsoft and Yahoo! have consolidated their positions quickly, by adding new companies and products to their portfolios. Also, a number of new start-ups have surfaced and are adding to the development of an LBS ecosystem.

GPS is increasingly becoming the technology of choice for mobile LBS. Once a clear geotagging technology emerges that works with all GPS mapping applications, is user-friendly and available to all, geotagging will take off. The growth of GPS in mobile is key to the future of geotagging. The spread of GPS, coupled with the huge improvements in the quality of cameras on handsets, mean that many users have now bought into device convergence – their phone is also their digital camera, and their MP3 player, and much more besides. The astronomical success of the iPhone is testament to this.

Mobile mapping and geotagging has great potential due to the relationship between a mobile subscriber and their handset, where the mobile device is often with the end-user for most of their waking time. With mobile penetration reaching 100% in many developed markets, the mobile camera phone will soon be in virtually everyone’s pocket.

Social networking and user generated content forms another market upon which geotagging is dependent. The importance of online and mobile communities has grown rapidly throughout the world – social networking is the now 4th largest sector on the Internet, and their user-landscape has gradually changed to a more ‘broader and older’ audience. Alongside other types of multimedia content, millions of images are uploaded onto these sites by their users everyday, creating opportunities for the development of a whole range of applications by third-party vendors. Already, there are many applications for geotagging the content by location on general sites i. e. Facebook and MySpace and photo-centric sites like Flicker.

The new visiongain report, Mobile Geotagging – a new market opportunity from within the LBS and UGC markets, Analysis and Forecast 2009-2014 is amongst the first to provide you with the insight to this growing market area. It examines the opportunities offered by geotagging and how advertisers, operators, manufacturers and other stakeholders can all get involved to provide profitable location-based services.

By reading this 100+ page report you will understand all of the exciting opportunities that will be available to increase your revenues and brand awareness.

This exclusive management report will tell you the following:
• Who are the main players in the mobile geotagging and what are they doing?
• What different forms of geotagging are available and expected to appear in the future?
• Why is geotagging so important to mobile?
• When will geotagging start to make traction in the market? When will it become a mass market proposition?
• How successful will it be?
• What is current landscape of the LBS and LBA markets, the key players, and future trends and prospects
• How are online and mobile social networks, and UGC growing
• Factors and drivers expected to influence future growth in the mobile geotagging market, and
• Recommends for different industry players

Find out the answers to these and many other questions by buying this vital industry insight.

Who needs to read this report
Directors, VP and Senior managers in:
• Mobile/ Cellular carriers and operators
• Digital and Mobile Advertising agencies
• Mobile Search companies
• Online/mobile mapping providers
• Handset manufacturers
• Location Based Service Providers
• Brands looking to tap into the mobile audience
• Online and mobile content providers

Important developments:

HTC Touch Cruise with new geotagging application
HTC in January 2009 unveiled a revamped version of HTC Touch Cruise handset in the US with new geotagging software called HTC Footprints.

Google launches Latitude
Google Latitude is a location-aware mobile app developed by Google. Latitude allows mobile phone users to allow certain other people on user Gmail contact list to track where users are.
 

For more information, please contact :
http://www. aarkstore. com/reports/Mobile-Geotagging-a-new-market-opportunity-from-within-the-LBS-and-UGC-markets-Analysis-and-Forecasts-2009-2014-33295. html