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Although navigation is an obvious and valid use for GPS in a phone (especially Nokia's new 'pedestrian' focus in their latest version 2.0 of Nokia Maps), there are a host of other uses which aren't so obvious. The fact that Nokia paid (literally) billions of dollars for Navteq last year shows that there's more to GPS than yet another tick box on a phone's spec sheet.

I've been using Geotagging more and more on my photos, for example. Armed with Nokia's free Location Tagger utility, GPS fix information is put into the Exif header of each JPG photo. Set Flickr or Google Picasa Web up to 'import' this information and you've got one heck of a photo browsing system, with each snap overlaid exactly on a map or satellite image. For holidays and day trips, this is a great way to bring photos alive. The actual tagging bit happens automatically, with the GPS being fired up, used and closed down without manual intervention.

Also automatic will be GPS use in searching. At the moment, there's no true (and native) GPS-enabled search utility for any phone platform, but it's surely a matter of time. Already Google and Yahoo! have next-gen mobile search pages that let you enter your location and will then presort results where necessary, to give relevant local matches. Surely using GPS information for your starting point can't be that far off. I give it 3 months!

What about real time presence information? Google took over Jaiku last year and nothing much has been seen of that - but Jaiku's a fabulous base on which to build a real-time, location-aware social network. For example, you're friends with Fred and Jaiku is showing him as 2km away and that his phone is 'active' (i.e. he's used it in the last 5 mins). Say that his latest Jaiku message was "In town for a meeting at 2pm", and that it's now 12.30 - it's the perfect time to call him and arrange an unplanned but very probably convenient meeting.

Many more applications in a phone or smartphone can benefit from some positional information. Now that in-phone GPS is usually 'Assisted', fix times are down to ten seconds or so, making use of GPS by other apps on a fire-up-get-fix basis is becoming more and more practical. What about a weather applet using your position for a more accurate forecast rather than just the generic country-wide one? Or lifestyle/fitness applications like Nokia Sports Tracker, using the GPS to monitor exercise levels to help you get fit?

I predicted, last year, that GPS would become standard equipment on all smartphones in 2008. I think I'm not going to be far wrong. And GPS is also starting to make inroads into mainstream feature phones, though this will take at least another couple of years.

GPS as a technology is no longer a novelty, it's fast moving into becoming a necessity.

I've had the good fortune of having friends with excellent knowledge of the cities I've lived in.  When lost, I tend to call them up and they tell me where I need to go.  I've never had to use the cellphone for GPS navigation, but I've printed out plenty of maps from Mapquest for trips. The major problem you face is up-to-date maps.  There is a difference between reading something on two-dimensional screens and understanding where to go when driving.  That said, I think my use of GPS would be most effective when I'm planning the trip (or when I forgot directions at home). 

As for most popular uses - that's a space where I can add some ideas.  The first thing that has to be understood is that the applications of mobile marketing are secondary.  The list is the most important.  Consumers still think of their phones as private (they've given up that hope on e-mail and for home phones).  If you're going to drive location-based campaigns, smart opt-in strategies that are targeted, direct, and don't cross over the bounds are needed.  If you don't have permission

 Mobile Marketing Rules

1. Have permission

2. Don't overdo it. (Track what you send and how many times)

LOCATION BASED USES

1) Coupons:

This is the easiest and the most common idea cited.  When a user has their mobile phone near a store or restaurant, a coupon is sent to the phone for 10% off or a free appetizer.  It sounds great, but this campaign is difficult to pull off.  It's hard to target people based on their geographic movement, and no one has hard metrics on what works.  I'd suggest starting small, using displays in stores to pitch specific products, or encouraging people to sign  when they are at a location (using POP), then sending them notices the next time they are near.  An example would be a Qdoba gathering names at a store, and then when the people are within 800M or so, offering a $1 off a burrito when the software recognizes the phone.  This would work especially well in areas where there is a lot of walking traffic, like outdoor malls places with delivery.  Broadcasting coupons should be done on a very small, very limited basis (10M around a display)

2) ATM's for Banking:

Banks should be using mobile alerts that customers can look for cash machines. 

3) SmartMobs (organizing):

This is a killer app for conferences. Getting cell phone numbers prior to conferences is a great way to organize conference attendees for parties, speeches, etc.  It's good for getting volunteers going, showcasing schedules, making announcements, and running contests.  Imagine a trade booth that asked people to sign up, and then gave away chances at a laptop when attendees got close to the booth.  

4) GPS accessories for the car: Restaurants with Menu specials and pictures

For smart phones, the chance for restaurants to offer menu specials at certain times would work great integrated with the car. The wife and I are always driving around doing things, and the ability to check restaurants for their current menus, reservations, or even call-to-reserve would be a real boost.  It's a bit more technical, but I'd probably buy a phone and select a carrier just to get this option. 

We like to think--perhaps naively--that nobody can track where we are on our mobile phone. The fact of the matter is, the cell providers have to know where you are in order to provide that information when you call 911. Even without GPS, they have a good idea of where you are based on cell tower triangulation.

Location based services are a whole different beast. In exchange for some service, you are having to provide you exact location--via GPS--to someone. I personally find that creepy. I don't necessarily want people that don't have to know exactly where I am to know. There are relatively few applications where needing to know my exact location is required. Cell tower triangulation is accurate enough for most of the applications I've seen, though not all handsets provide enough information to application developers for triangulation.

Micro blogging services like Jaiku support the concept of location, but it's fuzzy at best. It uses cell phone towers to determine location. Since users can tag araes themselves, it can be as general or as specific as you want.

One location-based service I've found where the GPS actually makes sense is Trapster. This service allows you to report speed traps, red light cameras, and the like. This allows other drivers to be aware of where they are and gives you warnings much like a radar detector. It's a neat application, but given the battery issues with GPS-enabled mobile phones and the lack of GPS-enabled mobile phones, this service might be just a bit ahead of it's time.

I don't use GPS now but for me it's a simple equation.   I want GPS on my Smartphone to integrated with the excellent Google maps feature and give me a GPS device in my car.    And I want it at no cost.   

TomTom has a unit that GPS enables the Treo.  Sounded cool to me, but there was a catch.   Currently the TomTom Treo GPS kit costs about $10 more than the TomTom "Navigator 6" dedicated GPS unit which looks a lot easier to use and could just sit in my car.  Or I could buy a Megellan Maestro for at Costco's current $149 after rebate.  

If I lived in a big city I'd invest in a GPS device but until then I'm waiting for somebody to come to their senses and GPS enable my Treo at no direct charge - instead just show me advertising relating to my travels which will help me pick restaurants, attractions, gas stations, and more.  I'd be happy to see relevant ads and would use this whenever I travel in to the big city. 

 

 

It's finally happening. Cellphones aren't about phone calls any more. They're becoming a platform for transactions -- and that's going to bring a revolution.

The "wireless internet" is already fulfilling one of the most famous predictions about the online world (that the internet will become so ubiquitous, it will "disappear" into the air around us.) But GPS services bring change of another magnitude, a major shift from just going online and browsing web pages. Cellphones will offer all the existing capabilities of the current internet, but combined with this huge new universe of useful and very personal data.

"Location-based information" is a powerful new experience that has yet to be fully exploited. One current example is the "buddy locator" feature that Helio offered. Expect this to become standard issue on all cellphones within five years. Instant messages can tell your when your friends are online, but a buddy locator can actually direct you to them! I predict this will become so popular that it will quickly spread to inanimate objects. Ever forget where you parked your car? Wouldn't it be great if your GPS-enabled phone could tell you where it was? A few tweaks could make this even more useful. I'd like a service like Google Local that can tell me where the nearest oil change station is while I'm in my car.

But the possibilities are endless. I already discussed some of this in another insight.

But there's one last possibility to consider. Douglas Adams used to talk about creating a "soft universe" - a data model of every physical thing in the real world (made possible through the universal adoption of cheap RFID tagging). "We are participating in a 3.5 billion-year program to turn dumb matter into smart matter," Adams declared just one month before his death in 2001. The idea of browsing web pages will one day be accompanied by the concept of browsing real-world objects. Mobile devices will simulate a flight through this virtual space, showing their temperature, position, and any virtual "outgoing message." Virtual objects can become web pages, while web pages can acquire a specific location.

Wouldn't it be great if your cellphone could ultimately tell you where your shoes are, or wherre you left the remote?

The possibilities are endless. We've been waiting for years for this day, when there's enough GPS-enabled cellphones to start offering new services, transactions. Eight years ago I wrote for a magazine about "the emerging mobile economy" -- but unfortunately, it didn't "emerge" quickly enough.

We've already seen the power of social networks. Now imagine combining that with location-based information. Someday Flickr will use geo-tagging to aggregate all the photos for a specific location -- and the best photos will be voted to the top of the list. But it won't just be great photos of every location you could ever visits. There could also be user-submitted reviews of every restaurant, every new movie, every bar. Combining social networking with location-based information could be revolutionary.

I don't use any GPS services -- I bought my cellphone several years ago, so it's not GPS-enabled. This proves it will take several years before there's an installed base

But when it's here -- it will be fantastic.