Scenario 2: Plain Practical Use

Introduction

In this scenario, a future is portrayed in which Location Based services are heavily used. After overcoming the privacy issues regarding Location Based Services, by means of worldwide enforced regulations. These regulations were introduced by the industy itself. After the introduction of many types of services, the market response was very low; location based service providers fail to convince their primary target audiences of the added value of their offerings. Allthough just a few applications gain considerable popularity and become commodified. A distinction can be made between three different kins of Location Based Services that are being used in this future;

i. Mobile navigation systems
ii. Entity locating services
iii. Brand Portal Membership

The following paragraphs will discuss the main events leading up to the described situation in a chronological fashion.

2011 – Brands as Lifestyles

Red Bull is competing with Coca Cola for having the most recognized and valuable brand name. Brands are more and more a prescription of how to live your life. Red Bull focusses on a very big group of active people which want to work hard and play even harder. Location based services are now no longer a hype. Besides car navigation and ICQ’s Locator empire, the only application of LBS that is feasible is the brand portal membership type of application. People indentify with a brand like Red Bull in such a deep manner that they become a member of such a brand and openly identify themselves with that brand. Party locations, news, events, meetings and special sales are being pushed to the mobile device to such members.

2007 – Many New Services

As wi-max takes of, the wireless data network coverage of the developed world gets denser and denser. Still, receiving a decent signal on your mobile data terminal is still not as normal as location based service providers (LBSP’s) would like it to be. Because of the growing interest in services that can be offered that take advantage of the attributes of wireless networks, many technologically oriented entrpreneurs start businesses that have one thing in common; an original approach to the use of location based services. Also, all the bigger telecom companies start unloading a variety of services on the general population.

2008 – Tough Audience

The disappointing reception of new services last year was first ascribed to the fact that the public was not educated enough. Later the excuse that wifi coverage was still somewhat low. In Japan, the game ‘Loa Jobi’, an LBS-based game best compared with hide-and-seek with strangers, was very popular, but a failed introduction in both Germany and Italy only fueled the LBSP’s concerns regarding the feasability of LBS offerings. At this point, 78% of car drivers around the world have a built-in navigation system, the only LBS that seems to be feasible. Both Garmin and Tomtom compete on such an extreme level that consumers profit from the very positive increase in quality versus decrease in price.

2009 – Privacy is no Longer an Issue

All though not mentioned as a big problem in questioning the market, nine of the biggest telecom companies agree upon a set of regulations amongst eachother regarding customer privacy. Using the recommendations of the EU, the alliance of telecom providers is very strict on themselves in order to keep the initiative in setting policy. China, the EU and the US all accept the standards set without any change or recommendation allthough none of them recognizes the regulations as official. Immediately after setting the regulations, Vodafone starts a mayor campaign about their regulations regarding privacy whioch coincides with the release of their new platform Vodafone: Alive ! Of which the main new feature is locating your friends, who at this point have to be members of Vodafone: Alive that are okay with being found. Right before this mayor campaign, ICQ releases a free Mobile Java-based version of ICQ which is able to locate other mobile ICQ Mobile users.

2010 – ICQ’s Revival

Connecting to a high speed wireless network is a rare happening as mostly everybody is all ready connected. Vodafone and their competitors did a great job advocating the ethical way in which is delt with privacy on corporate level. ICQ benefits in such a great way that Nokia and Sony-Ericsson are pre-installing ICQ Mobile on their handsets. ICQ’s people locating service systems are so well developed that FedEx takes a huge stake in ICQ’s business tracking center. Tracking and tracing of goods is now so precise that any receipient can determine the location of their goods in yards-from-destination. In the mean time. The persistent smaller LBSP’s have moved towards offering services which do seem to generate cash; navigation services of any kind. A few of them manage to stay in business competing with Tomtom and Garmin, most specialize in specific outdoor gear which helps navigating.