Sarantel survey reveals major LBS opportunities

SARANTEL, manufacturer of filtering antennas for mobile and wireless devices, has announced the results of a global survey that polled consumers on their views, usage and future expectations in relation to location based services on mobile handsets.

Independent marketing agency Ice Blue Sky carried out the survey in April and analysed the results on behalf of Sarantel. Highlights of the survey include:-

- 85 per cent of consumers aware of LBS would either be prepared to pay more for an LBS-equipped handset (34 per cent) or would choose an LBS-enabled handset over one without (50 per cent)

- Top three location based services consumers would adopt are locating nearest services (56 per cent), alerting the emergency services to their location (45 per cent) and finding their friends (17 per cent)

- 68 per cent of LBS users perceive current performance in terms of accuracy, speed and urban effectiveness to be average at best Market education emerged as a fundamental issue that the manufacturers and service providers need to address.

According to the survey, consumers were unfamiliar with the terms LBS and location based services (36 per cent), but most could name individual services. The survey indicated that today LBS is nearly synonymous with navigation, a well-promoted service that is readily available and easily understood.

Beyond navigation, consumers have identified a wish list of additional services that they would consider adopting: locating nearest services, such as cash points (56 per cent), alerting the emergency services to their location (45 per cent), finding their friends (17 per cent) and being notified of events in their area (15 per cent). Mobile marketeers should note that the least popular choice was receiving promotional information (10 per cent).

According to Sarantel's CEO David Wither, Network operators and handset manufacturers need to seriously consider the "implications of marginal performance and the negative impact this can have on consumer uptake. Average 'at best' is not good enough performance to enable a broad range of LBS services which require, robust, reliable and near-perfect positional accuracy to flourish commercially. Consumers have high expectations for performance. If their expectations are met, the sky's the limit."

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