According to Berg Insight, the global market for mobile-based location platforms is expected to reach ?275 million by 2018. The market will be driven by the emerging indoor location segment.
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At the same time, the market for mobile-based location platforms deployed by mobile operators is maturing. Annual revenues for GMLC/SMLC and SUPL A-GPS servers, passive location platforms, as well as middleware deployed by mobile operators are forecasted to grow from an estimated ?190 million in 2012 to ?275 million in 2018. The market is primarily being driven by public safety and lawful intercept mandates that require network operators to invest in location platforms enabling location of any handset. However, the growing end-user demand for commercial location-based services (LBS) is not expected to have a significant effect on the market for mobile-based network location platforms. A majority of the mass market commercial LBS currently rely on alternative location sources including GPS and Wi-Fi chipsets in mobile phones. Operators are however showing interest in location-enhanced enterprise and business to business services such as fraud management, secure authentication and marketing.
Berg states that an increasing number of operators are now deploying passive location platforms that enable mass location of handsets without straining network resources. These platforms are designed for delivering services such as advertising and big data analytics to public warning messages. Many stakeholders are now also investing in the indoor location market. Achieving seamless transition between outdoor and indoor navigation requires handsets which support hybrid location technologies. Hybrid location technologies fuse signal measurements from global navigation satellite systems, cellular and Wi-Fi network signals, together with data from handset sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, compasses and altimeters. Retailers are now also deploying network-centric location solutions that use Wi-Fi access points and new Bluetooth low energy beacons to enable highly accurate indoor location, geofencing and proximity services.
