Why is Location Based Services not taking off?

Yes I know, there are a lot of Location Based Services (LBS) out there. I know, I know…

But it could be so much more and so much better. Currently we have proprietary solutions each covering a narrow field. It is not only proprietary software but also proprietary networks. Remember the chat history? Now the chat services have started to connect to each other in different ways. Either they connected like MSN and Yahoo did or someone else did it for them such as Meebo or Fring. Location Based Services are just in the beginning of a similar roadmap. Right now all of them are trying to build their own Location Based Social Network. “See where your friends are and communicate with them”.

Some examples:

• Google Latitude, not much more than a map and “where am I and where are my friends”, that’s it. There are many others like this. Not very interesting, except one thing. They doesn’t consume much of your battery power! Anyway, I suppose that Google have greater plans for the future.
• PocketLife is loaded with functions such as saving and sharing tracks, sharing photos, sharing position and favorite places, sharing messages (Twitter style) and more.  This is a Location Based Social Network.
• Nokia Sports tracker let you keep track of your sport activities and share it with your friends and of course a map to see where you are and what your latest achievements were. Nokia only, of course!
• Nike+iPhone connects your iPhone to your Nike shoes (what a stupid idea – sorry, I mean genius!). Similar to the Nokia sports tracker but added with the elegant connection to your shoes. Maps, tracks, a community web page, and a lot of events and offers, it’s all there. Works only with iPhone and Nike, of course!
• iPhone have several other apps as well, for instance Brightkite, Loopt, Pelago and more. They all offer you a community, see where your friends are, communicate with them and so on. They can be used on other mobiles as well, but I think they are best on the iPhone!
• many others not mentioned here and even more to come.

This gives a hint about the current state of the art. They have many nice functions but no one has it all. Pocketlife is an impressive beta but suffers from the same proprietary limitations as all the others but they have done the best possible, under the prevailing conditions. Businesses such as restaurants and shops are not really included in any of these LBS networks yet. They can not give us the best offer when we are passing by and if some LBS have that, well then it is only a limited number of businesses that are included. Now, maybe not all of us want to get offers when we are walking by but a good software let us put it on or off. Why not have the tourist information for the city connected? The answer is the same again.

The main problem here is lack of standards and infrastructure. We have 3 stakeholders (except from you and me, the consumers). The operator, the mobile handset maker and the 3G operator. All of them are currently asking “What’s in it for me”?

If a restaurant wants to give me a good offer when I pass by they need to know that I am there. They need to send me the offer and the one who provides the solution want some money as well. Let’s look at the flow of money here. Who puts in money and who will get the money. We use a restaurant as an example.

We are close to the restaurant and the operator delivers the message to the restaurant application, which reply with an offer in some kind of message. The operator hands over the offer to us. The mobile manufacturer or a subcontractor provides the GPS, map and navigation software in our mobiles. They want to be included this party to. They all wants your money! What’s in it for you?

• The restaurant gets more customers so here there is someone to charge.
• You get a service so you got to pay in one way or another. Maybe on the restaurant bill, with ad’s or by a fee.
• All the others, mobile manufacturers, network operators and  subcontractors they want something from you and the restaurant.

A proprietary solution will include only part of the players and only part of the mobiles or part of the networks. Sooner or later, I suppose later they will start to connect with each other similar to what the chat networks started to do. They must agree on what standard to use in order to do it.

What we really need is an infrastructure that is independent of  network operators, mobile manufacturers and others. Will we have that? Probably not for a long time.

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