Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/bxdls7/u_s) has announced the addition of Frost & Sullivan's new report "U.S. Location-based Services Market" to their offering.

The Wireless Carrier Opportunity

The U.S. location-based services (LBS) market is currently experiencing strong growth, due to the rising popularity of smartphones and high speed cellular data plans. LBS services that are seeing the strongest adoption are navigation and family finder applications, although augmented reality, gaming, and fitness applications are showing signs of significant potential. Frost & Sullivan anticipates that navigation applications will remain the largest sellers from Tier I carriers, although new applications that use LBS technology for unique services will grow in importance. Additionally, navigation and family finder applications will continue to evolve and the end-user experience will subsequently improve.

Defining Location-Based Services

The variety and breadth of possible applications and services is overwhelming, from pure content and advertising, to next generation E911 (NG911), navigational aids, social networking, and tracking services.

What is LBS?

The concept - Mobile LBS consists of a broad range of services that incorporate location information with other data to provide a value-added experience to a mobile user. Location services rely on a combination of terrestrial, satellite, and software-based measurement technologies to pinpoint the location of a user, which is then integrated with contextual data to provide a value-added experience to a mobile user.

The Mobile Carrier Opportunity

In contrast to the passive fixed Internet, users in the mobile environment are demanding personalized, localized, and timely access to content and services. As operators search for new types of products and services to leverage network investments, LBS have emerged as an ample opportunity to provide a means of differentiation, a way to build customer loyalty, and a new revenue stream in the increasingly competitive mobile environment.

Market Highlights

1 The U.S. location-based services market is expected to grow..

2 Companies like Google are pioneering the free/advertising-based pricing model and expanding LBS to a new audience.

3 Barriers to entry for mobile application vendors are quickly becoming less of an issue with the success of app stores.

4 To effectively compete, carriers must recognize their unique assets and aggressively leverage them.

5 Emerging applications that can be enhanced with LBS, like augmented reality, social networking, and gaming apps, are growing.

Segments Covered By This Report

- Navigation

- Family Finder

- Social Networking

- Fitness/Sport

- Weather Applications

- Real Estate Applications

- Entertainment Applications

- Augmented Reality

Key Questions Answered

- What areas of the wireless carrier LBS market are experiencing high growth?

- What LBS pricing models will have the most success in this market?

- How will the wireless carrier LBS market grow over the forecasted period, and what are the causes?

- What changes and evolution are expected for the LBS market?

- What application categories are expected to grow most significantly for wireless carriers?

- What is needed for location-based services applications to be successful in the mobile market?

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/bxdls7/u_s

Source: Frost & Sullivan