Location-Aware Smartphones ‘Becoming More Popular’

by Mike Essex on 25th May 2010

Marketers are being told by an expert about the potential of location-based search as smartphones appear to the take the place of satellite navigation systems.

Danny Brogan, reviews editor of Mobile Choice magazine, suggested such features, whether used for navigational purposes or to track an individual’s position and feed them relevant information, is becoming "increasingly popular".

Furthermore, he indicated that applications of this kind are possibly second only to social media platforms in terms of public demand and brands such as MySpace and Facebook, which are also integrating the technology into their own offerings.

What may interest marketing managers, including those who use link building services, is data from Juniper Research which forecasts that by 2014, 1.5 billion people around the world will be using location-based search features.

Its reports said that the decreasing cost to adopt of global positioning systems and increased integration of the technology into smartphones will help drive growth in years to come.