Posts tagged smart phone
Supermarkets and Location-Based Services: Pancake Mix on Aisle 6
Sep 4th
If you thought finding someone was a challenge, our supermarkets offer as manay as 100,000 items on their store shelves. Finding the one thing you are looking for can often be a hassle, especially if you prefer to turn your search for a dozen eggs. Now, with the help of an Location Aware app shoppers at a number of Meijer supercenters in Michigan will be able to use their iPhones to find the product they are looking for.
Supermarkets are a lucrative market for indoor location services, as they allow companies to speak directly to consumers who are actively looking to buy something. Of course they all ready used LOCiMOBILE to find thier shopping mate. This gives a store like Meijer, which is running a pilot study of this application, the opportunity to customize offers for frequent shoppers and to highlight sale items and other products.
Supermarkets want to ensure that shoppers don’t leave the store without finding what they are looking for so… Determining a shopper’s location inside a store is not an easy task, as GPS signals don’t work inside a building. Instead, the app triangulates a shopper’s location in the store with the help of WiFi access points inside the building. WiFi used to be a rarity in supermarkets, but Meijer now has 26 hotspots inside every store that is participating in this pilot, which allows the company to locate a shopper with a good enough accuracy to be useful.
GTX Corp was counting: Mobile app downloads top 3.8 billion in first half of 2010
Aug 26th
Smartphone owners worldwide downloaded more than 3.8 billion mobile applications in the first six months of 2010, compared to 3.1 billion in all of 2009, according to new data issued by market analysis firm research2guidance. Global smartphone revenues for the first half of 2010 exceed $2.2 billion, surpassing full-year 2009 revenues of $1.7 billion. The study adds that the average premium application price in now $3.60.
“Apple’s competitors like Nokia and BlackBerry started to leverage their global reach and increased the traffic on their app stores,” said research2guidance analyst Egle Mikalajunaite in a prepared statement. “We see this trend continuing in the next several months and years. The next wave of new app stores will be niche stores specializing on e.g. business or mobile health apps.”
Chomp’s iPhone Mobile App Search Turns Pain Into Pleasure for Downloaders
Aug 24th
Chomp, a website that recommends mobile applications, has just launched an app for the iPhone that offers a nifty sort of search engine — one that matches modern mobile browsing habits. Read the full story >>
GTX Corp signs Samsung agreement to deliver GPS Tracking apps to 40 million new smartphones
Aug 17th
In the agreement, GTX Corp will make available its popular GPS Tracking apps on Samsung’s bada operating system. The GPS Tracking apps will be featured for sale October 2010 in Samsung’s Application Store. Of the 40 million Samsung handsets anticipated to ship between now and mid-2011, 15-20 million will be the new “Scotia” models.
Samsung, the world’s second largest mobile phone manufacturer, launched its own open mobile platform, Samsung bada, in December 2009. Samsung’s mobile 235 million unit ecosystem enables developers to create applications for millions of new bada platform mobile phones. Samsung chose the name “bada”—which means “ocean” in Korean—to convey the limitless variety of potential applications that can be created with bada.
GTX Corp’s announcement follows on an 89% increase in its previous quarter’s revenues in addition to a number of software and hardware deals, including the launch of its consumer social networking portal www.gpstrackingapps.com. The company also posted its GPS Tracking app for the iPad and is launching a GPS camera app this month to its suite of LOCiMOBILE GPS apps.
Everything has a price, including mobile privacy.
Jul 23rd
That’s one of many conclusions to be drawn from audit, tax and advisory services firm KPMG’s new Consumers & Convergence study–the annual survey reveals that while user concerns over data privacy are growing, with 79 percent of respondents worldwide expressing angst over unauthorized access to their personally identifiable information, 58 percent of respondents also say they would be willing to allow tracking of their digital behavior and profile information if it resulted in lower costs. KPMG also notes the emergence of what it calls “Information Sharers”–i.e., mobile subscribers willing to exchange personal data for cheap or free content, as well as conduct their banking and even access personal medical information via wireless device. The study indicates Information Sharers now make up about 10 percent of the overall mobile user population, led by consumers in China and India; however, U.S. respondents represent just 4 percent of the Information Sharer segment, despite making up 12 percent of the KPMG survey group.
Apple defends location data collection policies
Jul 20th
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) responded to a congressional probe into its location data collection policies, contending its geo-specific services exist to enhance the user experience and emphasizing that it only activates location solutions upon receiving consumer consent. In a 13-page letter released Monday by Reps. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe L. Barton (R-Texas), Apple general counsel and senior vice president of legal and government affairs Bruce Sewell writes “Apple collects location data for only one purpose–to enhance and improve the services we can offer to our customers,” stating the company does not share consumer location information collected via iPhones and iPads with AT&T or other partners. “Apple is committed to giving our customers clear notice and control over their information, and we believe our products do this in a simple and elegant way,” Sewell states. “We share [legislators'] concerns about the collection and misuse of location data.”
According to Sewell, Apple began offering location-based solutions in January 2008, with services now extending across devices including the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac computers running Snow Leopard–the company notes that beginning with the April 2010 release of iPhone OS 3.2, it relies on its own databases to provide location-based services and for diagnostic services. “Apple has always provided its customers with the ability to control the location-based service capabilities on their devices,” Sewell explains. “In fact, Apple now provides customers even greater control over such capabilities for devices running the current version of Apple’s mobile operating system–iOS 4.” Controls include a single On/Off toggle switch to disable all location-based service capabilities, express consumer consent when an application or website first requests location-specific data, iOS permissions to identify individual apps that cannot access location information even if the global LBS setting is toggled to “On,” and an arrow icon alerting iOS 4 users when an app users geo-specific information.
Sewell also clarified data collection protocols specific to Apple’s new iAd mobile advertising network, introduced earlier this month. “Customers can receive advertising that relates to their interests (‘interest-based advertising’) and/or their location (‘location-bsed advertising’),” he writes. “For example, a customer who purchased an action movie on iTunes may receive advertising regarding a new action being released in the theaters or on DVD. A customer searching for nearby restaurants may receive advertising for stores in the area.” Sewell adds that Apple does not share any interest-based or location-based data about individual customers with advertisers; the company retains a record of each ad sent to a particular device in a separate iAd database, accessible only by Apple, to guarantee consumers do not receive overly repetitive or duplicate ads. In the event an advertiser wishes to provide more specific information based on user location, a dialogue box will give the consumer the choice whether to transmit their latitude/longitude coordinates–Apple notes that information is not provided to the advertiser.
Apple revised its consumer privacy policy in late June to authorize the collection and sharing of “precise location data” from devices like the iPhone and iPad. Markey and Barton, co-chairmen of the House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, quickly sent a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs asking for additional clarification: “Given the limited ability of Apple users to opt out of the revised policy and still be able to take advantage of the features of their Apple products, we are concerned about the impact the collection of such data could have on the privacy of Apple’s customers,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter. On Monday, Markey and Barton thanked Apple for its explanation, but expressed lingering concern over the rise of location data collection: “The new challenges and concerns that present themselves with the collection and use of location-based information are particularly disconcerting,” Barton said in a statement. “While I applaud Apple for responding to our questions, I remain concerned about privacy policies that run on for pages and pages.”
Location App Privacy: a question asked and answered.
Jul 17th
The great thing about personal location services is you and I can have instant access to a multi-billion government GPS technology enabling the display of the location of the people we know with a push of a button right on our smart-phones. As amazing as this opportunity is for each of us, displaying and sharing personal information with the assurance of privacy is a significant concern.
When people make personal information available, they make themselves vulnerable. To deal with their vulnerability people weigh both what they have to “give” and what they “get” when asking and answering personal information questions. It should come as no surprise that Pew research found that 85% of adults want to control access to their personal information because that something is publicly accessible doesn’t mean people want it to be publicized.
As Helen Nissenbaum of New York University has argued, “contextual integrity” is necessary for people to effectively manage their privacy. The mere threat of a breach of integrity is experienced as a violation of privacy as we have recently witnessed both with FaceBook and Google Buzz.
Providing and insuring control of personal privacy has been a fundamental precept for GTX Corp and its LOCiMOBILE GPS Tracking Apps. Sharing personal location information is kept securely between the people asking and answering the “where is” question in a peer to peer environment. No information is taken, stored, shared or used by anyone but the app’s subscribers. The keyword is “personal” location service.
App stores anticipated to generate $15 billion in 2013
Jul 13th
With app store downloads topping 3.6 billion in 2009 and expected to grow to 6.6 billion this year, market research firm Futuresource Consulting forecasts downloads will leap to 16.2 billion in 2013, translating to worldwide revenues of close to $15 billion. According to Futuresource, more than 85 percent of existing app store downloads are free to consumers, a percentage expected to remain stable over the next few years–consumer spending is nevertheless surging, with the premium mobile app market from developers like GTX Corp continuing to expand their titles.
Futuresource says that, along with direct-per-pay downloads, its revenue projections incorporate indirect value-add services like in-app payments and subscriptions as LOCiMOBILE does with its new people finder TRACKING app. “Factor in mobile content revenues which fall beyond the world of the apps store–like direct downloads from gaming companies, handset manufacturers and operators, video downloads, music and ringtones–and the whole package will be worth $38 billion worldwide by 2013,” said Futuresource senior market analyst Patrik Pflandler in a prepared statement.
Futuresource adds that app stores also hold significant promise for non-smartphone devices like the forthcomong Samsung Bada OS tablets, and expects applications to become a major feature of connected TVs and Blu-ray players, with a particular emphasis on familiar apps and brands that fit comfortably within the viewer experience.
Blodget says: “Apple will sell 12 million iPhones to Verizon subscribers for $7 billion”
Jul 5th
Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile-phone company, will start selling Apple Inc.’s iPhone next year, closing out AT&T Inc.’s exclusive license on the smartphone in the U.S. – So say inside sources. Verizon could very well generate a 12 million net additional iPhone sales for Apple plus $3 in EPS per year—which isn’t included into current expectations.
In the first quarter of this year, a third of AT&T’s iPhone activations came from consumers new to the carrier. In the absence of those 900,000 new subscribers, ATT may have posted a loss in contract customers that quarter, analysts relayed.
Apple has sold more than 50 million iPhones since the smart-phone’s introduction in 2007. The latest version, iPhone 4, sold more than 1.7 million units in the first three days after its recent debut, a record for the product.
What does that mean for apps and devices running on the Android, Rim and Bada platforms? As the sophistication of these platforms and devices rises, so does the demand for their devices and downloads. More app developers will follow if for no other reason than the potential numbers. Open source is a great incentive and a competitive field provides options to those that don’t feel the love from APPL.
The greatest impact will be the inevitable migration to smart-phones which only have a 20% or so share of the total operating global devices, but show a 72% quarter on quarter increase. We will see a further transition to data communications over voice. It may even come to pass that we drop the word “phone’ from the device vocabulary once ubiquity is achieved.
We believe that the greatest changes may not appear in devices, apps or even in the growth of revenues, but rather in the evolution of our social DNA. The opportunity for us to be aware of each others location using GPS technology in a safe, opt-in transparent fashion will forever alter our social interactions with merchants, business associates, friends, family and places…
Companies like GTX Corp and its LOCiMOBILE subsidiary, have found sincere interest for their miniaturized embedded technologies here and abroad addressing logistic, asset management, people tracking and social networking applications because everyone is asking the “where is” question and GTXO has the “where is” answer.
Steve Jobs believes that Google took a bite of his Apple
Mar 3rd
Apple has filed suit against cell phone manufacturer HTC for patent infringement. While the lawsuit names HTC, the largest manufacturer of Android handsets, the actual target is Google’s Android OS. Open systems may very well mean open warfare as a barrage of 20 Apple patents contest the very opportunity for Google to launch a marketing offensive in the Smart Phone space. The thud of the gauntlet resounded throughout the 3G world with simultaneous domestic and international filings.