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According to ABI Research, mobile location-based social networking is expected to become a key driver for the uptake of location-based services as it provides a unifying framework for a large set of applications such as friend finders, local search and geo-tagging. The research company argues that while many LBS applications will include features allowing the sharing of real-time experiences via “fixed” social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, fully-fledged mobile location-based social networking sites will also gain momentum with more than 82 million subscriptions expected by 2013.
Licensing agreements with carriers and handsets manufacturers will be a crucial success factor for location-enabled social sites to reach critical market share, with advertising-based model set to prevail due to the perfect fit with the local search- and content-driven social context. In addition, the emergence of location-enabled IM apps such as Palringo Local and Nokia Chat is also an important trend to watch.
ABI Research director, Dominique Bonte, argues that the growth will be mainly driven by the availability of GPS-enabled handsets. However, he also adds that Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) with built-in GPS receivers, connected PNDs and outdoor GPS will also play an important role. As an example, Dominique points to Nissan Carwings’ in-car telematics solution, which allows the sharing and ranking of fuel consumption in Japan…
More information about ABI’s study “Location-Based Mobile Social Networking” is available from here.
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
