Does This Signal the End of Mobile GPS?
Date: Saturday, September 19 @ 18:28:41 UTC
Topic:
 Finnish start-up GloPos have just launched their much anticipated website announcing their patent-pending software algorithm that enables any basic GSM or CDMA mobile phone to provide accurate location and tracking data without using GPS or Wi-Fi. The location algorithm sends data from a standard phone, using tried and trusted cellular triangulation, to a server that returns location within milliseconds - with a greater precision than GPS.
Two market disruptors can be foreseen:
GPS cannot be used effectively indoors or at all underground - GloPos can be used in both circumstances, this should hugely expand the location market.
GPS cannot be used on older mobile handsets that are not smartphones - GloPos can. If GloPos have got this right, they could see huge returns. Approximately one billion mobile phones are sold every year without GPS capabilities, that's 80% of the market.
GloPos claim urban accuracy of 1 to 30 metres and suburban accuracy of 10 to 40, both including indoors. Standard cell tower triangulation typically achieves somewhere between 100 to 1000 metres.
The indoor capability, coupled with minimal battery drain compared to GPS (meaning that GloPos' positioning will be "always on"), should allow a better experience for social apps such as Twitter, Facebook and Google Latitude.
The fact that someone can be advertised to, indoors, in real-time and within metres of (or within) their outlet is something I would imagine that many companies will get very excited about. Also, think about the possibilities in airports and exhibition halls and imagine the possibility for guerrilla marketing. It looks as if many ideas that have already been put forward in the location based services (LBS) arena may gain popularity.
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