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The European LBS Market is Estimated to Account for Eur 2,183 Million in the Next Five Years

DUBLIN, Ireland-- Feb. 27, 2006--Research and Markets ( http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c21170 ) has announced the addition of The Structure of the European LBS Market 2005 to their offering.

What are the latest developments on the European LBS market? This forecast shows that LBS could contribute with over EUR 2 billion by 2009. This 300+ page strategic report gives a complete overview of 27 European markets and in-depth case studies of the LBS strategies of 10 leading mobile operators. Gain detailed insights about the complete LBS value chain spanning from technology vendors, solution vendors and mobile operators to content providers, service providers and application developers. Learn about where and how LBS have been successfully launched in the European market and how these successes can be repeated.

Highlights from the report:

Overview of LBS offerings, market strategies and equipment in 27 European markets.
Case studies of the LBS strategies of 10 leading mobile operators.
Complete update on location-based regulatory and standards in Europe.
Comprehensive profiles of 67 LBS vendors on the European market.
More than 70 executive interviews performed.
78 charts, graphs and tables.
Summary

Mobile location services have not taken off as rapidly as many observers expected a few years ago. Revenues from location-based service (LBS) in the European market were approximately EUR 108 million in 2004. Over the coming five years, we believe this figure will grow to EUR 2,183 million and account for 4.5 percent of total non-voice revenues. We have identified several important drivers which we believe will bring about a mass market breakthrough for LBS at long last. These include increasingly user firendly handsets, accelerated implementation of high accuracy, high performance positioning technology and an increasing emphasis among operators on data services to compensate for lower voice revenues. New E112 directives from the EU may also drive quicker implementation of high accuracy positioning technology among mobile operators in Europe. Once the European LBS market takes off, we believe the key market segments will be navigation, tracking and location-enhanced instant messaging.

Today, location is regarded more as a service enabler than necessarily a set of services in its own right. Mobile operators have been busy deploying a portfolio of mobile data services, and in this scurry to launch features such as MMS and Java, location-enabled services have been put on hold so far. Pan-European operators have so far been struggling to coordinate their overall mobile data efforts across their networks. Common location platforms are proving to be no exception - they are also taking some time to roll out. It is still true that location is the key factor that distinguishes the mobile Internet from the fixed Internet. Location-based services are emerging as an opportunity to provide differentiation, a way to build customer loyalty and a new revenue stream. These statements are still valid, but to make it happen takes much longer than have been predicted before by all parties in the value chain.

While takeoff has been slower than expected, the signs are pointing towards more services becoming available. For example, although Europe's operators typically only offer Cell-ID based positioning, they are opening up their positioning information to third parties as well - thus enabling more application and services providers to take advantage of location data. There are some clear operator trends today in Europe that are very positive for LBS:

Growing competition among the operators on more mature markets.
Re-launch campaigns of LBS.
Increasing interest in high accuracy technologies.
Position wholesale on a larger scale.
Emergency call within EU. There are still possibilities for mandates pushing the operators to invest in location-based services.
New handsets offer new possibilities.

More attractive LBS thanks to larger storage memory, colour screens, Java, megapixel cameras and MMS. The foremost reason for the slow up-take is that the services offered up until today have simply been too slow and complicated to use. We do believe in integration of LBS in many services, but it will once again take some time before this is done in a way that is really appealing to end users. Already now it is possible to introduce appealing services within certain areas. One such area is child tracking and alert or positioning services for the elderly. However, a successful service will require some vertical integration, dedicated devices and end-to-end management of the service. Such a service could be delivered by existing operators, but we believe that the first ones to really make it happen might very well be dedicated service providers.

Some of the companies mentioned include:

Megafon - MTS - O2 Group - Orange Group- T-Mobile Group - T-Mobile Austria - Telefonica Moviles - Telenor Norway - TeliaSonera Group - Vodafone Group - Appear Networks- Autodesk Location Services- CPS - Cambridge Positioning Systems- Cellpoint- Ekahau- Ericsson - Lucent- Mobile Arts - Motorola - Nokia - Nortel - Oksijen - Qualcomm/Snaptrack - Siemens - TCS201- TruePosition - Global Locate - Cellvision - Genasys - Locationet - Mobilaris - Openwave - PTV.- Reach-U - Redknee - Telcontar - Telenity - Cityneo - Cyantel - Daydream Software- Gate5 - Geodan - Geodata - Gizmondo - Intergraph (Intelliwhere) - Intrado - M-spatial - Mecomo- Mobile Commerce- Mobiloco - MS Location - Newt Games - OnPosition - Teydo/Mobispot - Trackwell - Varetis - Wayfinder - Wavemarket - Wcities - Webraska - Wherify Wireless- YDreams - ESRI- Geomicro- Istar- Mapflow- Mapinfo - Maporama- Microsoft Mappoint- Multimap- Navteq - Sagie Research- Tele Atlas - Telmap - Telenavis

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