INTERNATIONAL – With location-based services (LBS) stealing so many online column inches recently, one aspect that I think has dodged discussion is the hardware – most of the limelight has been shone on the warranted significance of Nokia’s recent acquisitions of NAVTEQ, Trolltech and Plazes, alongside the tangible releases of pioneering new LBS apps such as Nokia Chat .
INTERNATIONAL – How connected are you and to what degree do you want be? In today’s fast paced highly connected mobile world and the breathless evolution of location-based services (LBS) it’s not such a simple question anymore, raising some important social issues along the way.
INTERNATIONAL – Last Friday we posted a story on the release of a beta version of Nokia Chat, an instant messaging micro app with GPS location-based features. Since then, I’ve been playing around with it with the team, setting it up, but have barely scratched the surface. In that first piece I simply asked “What do you think to GPS-enabled instant messaging. Good or bad?”, and one response from a reader, Sven Koerber, raised the interesting point of ‘trust’ and when you’re using a service like this – a little mentioned, yet extremely important word, that is definitely worth us all considering with regards to a location-based communication apps.
INTERNATIONAL – At the tail-end of last week Nokia’s acquisition of pioneering digital map maker NAVTEQ was finally rubber-stamped. Sure, mammoth deals such as this are strategic and smart on a number of levels, but what’s most interesting about Nokia’s purchase of NAVTEQ from my perspective as a user is the huge emphasis on innovation this promises with relation to the rapid evolution of location-based services.
SOMEWHERE – The term, Location Based Services, or LBS, has been kicking around for a long time. Like many terms full of baggage (WAP comes to mind), there are lots to like and lots to dislike. A comment by Alfie Dennen a week or two back has been bouncing in my head. So, today I did a perusal of some posts on LBS to see what the sentiment is.
Overall, LBS is still viewed as a failed promise. But I get a feeling that, unlike many years ago, we seem to have a better grasp of what we want (or not) out of it. Also it has faded into the background as an enabler, hence we don’t see it for what it is (’LBS is dead. Long live LBS’?). Read my take in the post below.
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