Annual shipments of GPS-enabled phones will grow rapidly over the period
2008-2012. This report predicts that by 2012, GPS phones will account for
37% of all shipments (535 million).The number of users of mobile location
services accessed via GPS phones is also expected to grow strongly. Furthermore,
this report predicts that by 2012 the worldwide user base of the most popular
location-enabled services, navigation and mobile social networking, will
reach 150 and 127 million respectively. This growth in the availability
of handset location information (LI) raises many questions about the degree
to which users can be protected from potential abuses of their LI.
Furthermore, this report predicts the market for GPS phones, location finding
techniques, legal and regulatory implications of GPS phones and technologies
available for managing location privacy. Report analysis of the emerging
LBS market reveals that there is a potential for serious abuses of location
privacy in cases where the use of location information has not been adequately
regulated.
Topics of coverage include:
- A review of positioning technologies that allow handsets to be located
- Descriptions of the main types of LBS applications: personal security,
navigation, education & gaming, enterprise, social networking, commerce and
Government
- Analysis of the legal, regulatory and technological mechanisms available for
the protection of location privacy
- Examination of existing government regulation in selected countries/regions
- Discussion of various industry initiatives and codes of practice
- Recommendations for regulators, operators and LBS providers to ensure
protection of personal location information
- Forecasts for annual GPS phone shipment and total installed base of GPS
handsets
- Forecast for user numbers of the main types of LBS applications
Companies and organisations mentioned, discussed or reviewed
include:
3 UK Argyll Telecom BlueSky Positioning
Cellfire CityNeo CTIA (US) European Commission (EC) European
Space Agency FCC followGB FollowUS Global Locate Google
Helio Infineon KDDI LG MeetMoi Microsoft Ministry of
Information and Industry (China)
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Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (Japan)
Mobile Commerce Mobile Marketing Association Mobiqa Motorola
Navizon Network in Motion NeuStar Nokia O2 OECD
Ofcom (UK) Open Geospatial Consortium Open Mobile Alliance (OMA)
Openwave Orange Orbis Ordnance Survey PCCW Directories
Qualcomm
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RealReplay Shozu Skyhook Sprint
Nextel Symbian TCS Tele Atlas TeleNav TI The Location
Company The Shroud Trueposition UpGrade InTouch Verisign
Verizon Vodafone WaveMarkets
WeatherBug
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Answers and opinions are
provided with respect to the following essential questions:
- How will GPS handset volumes grow over the coming years?
- What is the significance of active and passive location services?
- How is handset location accuracy set to evolve?
- Why is it important that location privacy regulation is not restricted to
operators?
- What are the location applications which have the biggest implications for
privacy?
- How is E911, E112, eCall and ELRS affecting the GPS phone market?
- What are the techniques for managing location privacy?
- How effective has industry self-regulation been?
- Why should a piecemeal approach to regulation be avoided?