TrendAffordable, downloadable navigation applications are coming

Published 8 June 2007

If millions of phones were to be equipped with cameras and navigation applications and E911, we would have an army of millions of forward spotters

Know where you are going. Mobile phone operators now have the ability to market a downloadable navigation application which is just as good as, if not better, than personal navigation devices (PNDs), says research firm In-Stat in a just-published study. The result is that handset-based mapping and navigation applications may well bring about a major change in the navigation market, which is currently dominated by relatively expensive standalone devices, the high-tech market research firm says. In-Stat also found the following:

* Cellular operators whose service is based on CDMA (and iDEN) have an advantage over other mobile operators in nearly every region of the world, largely because of the A-GPS technology originally driven by mandates to support E911 services

* U.S. operators find that offering navigation applications to subscribers increae their (the operators’) ability to draw subscribers from other operators and keep their own subscribers loyal

* The total number of mapping and navigation mobile phone subscribers could exceed forty-two million worldwide by 2012

In-Stat report, at $3,495, costs more than the navgiational applications it studies, but it offers useful insights and analysis.

The trend is especially welcome for homeland security and emergency response agencies DHS is pushing a plan (well, an idea) to equip every cellular phone in the United States with chemical and biological sensors, thus unleashing an army of millions of detectors to spot, early on, biological or chemical attacks. If millions of phone were to be equipped with cameras and navigation applications and E911, we would have an army of millions of forward spotters capable of providing instant information about disasters to emergency and first response agencies.