Global location-based services platforms revenue will grow from $560 million in 2010 to $1.8 billion in 2015, at which point the market will reach saturation point, according to a new “LBS Platforms” study published by ABI Research (News - Alert).

 

In the past, the Mobile Location Center licensing revenues were largely driven by the E911 emergency calling market in the United States. According to the findings of the new study, in the future, both the introduction of carrier-grade LBS services and governmental safety and security requirements will boost MLC revenues in other regions like Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.

 

The study notes that the MLC vendor ecosystem comprises of traditional wireless infrastructure providers, including Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks (News - Alert). In addition, it also consists of specialized players such as Telecommunication Systems, TruePosition and Creativity Software.

 

In the United States, TCS has been particularly successful. The company has made large number of deployments with smaller carriers which has earned it a second place in terms of deployments market share, after market leader Ericsson (News - Alert), according to the study.

 

Dominique Bonte, practice director at ABI Research, said that the recent off-deck revolution has boosted the popularity of consumer LBS applications on smartphone application stores such as Apple’s (News - Alert) iTunes.

 

However, he said that there is still a large opportunity for carriers to invest in network-based positioning platforms for the provisioning of mission-critical person-tracking, and also enterprise LBS services. “These include asset tracking and workforce management.”

 

Additionally, the study states that the governments across the globe are taking the lead in investing in network-based positioning for lawful intercept, emergency calling and national security purposes. This is happening due to its “superior indoor coverage” and “overall reliability” compared with GPS, as it does not rely on handset functionality.

 

Bonte said that while high precision A-GPS location technologies are expected to dominate the social consumer LBS space, medium-accuracy methods such as enhanced Cell-ID and high accuracy positioning such as U-TDOA will provide carriers with “unique assets,” allowing them to challenge off-deck LBS providers.

 

ABI Research’s new study describes the value chain for LBS-enabling platforms, and the co-dependent relationships that exist between those platforms and the vendors that provide them.

 

In addition, it also covers the business model for the sale of these solutions and examines the market-leading companies that are active in supplying them. Plus, it includes detailed MLC licensing revenue forecasts.