I’ve sat through an unbelievable number of nav & LBS presentations, so I get quite excited when I see one that genuinely interests me.

Below you’ll find the video of presentation by Jeff Holden from Pelago @ Where recently.

He’s followed on from thoughts that were buzzing around my mind after checking out Nokia Vine recently.

Basically, Jeff has brought together 3 ideas that for me suggest big money for LBS.

(Location + Context) + Analytics = Money (?)

I've been following an ongoing saga in the US ...

It could be a defining situation for privacy and GPS people tracking.

For those not in the know, I'll catch you up very quickly!

- In the US, the police need a warrant to tap a phone line or enter a person's home

- However, the whole GPS tracking thing is still up in the air...

- The big point of contention at the moment: This month a Wisconsin appellate court upheld the use of evidence obtained by placing a GPS device on a suspect’s car without a warrant

Inspired by the webbys, I thought I would compile a list of apps that have caught my eye for being weird, cool, innovative or actually useful!

* Also read on for a link to some delicious pie charts filled with location-based goodness

Let’s be honest, putting things in lists is:

a)  fun
b)  easy

So, let's get going!

1. Nokia Vine

In one word: Professional! 

One thing that strikes me about the global navigation and location markets is the rapid pace of change.

It’s not only the products and technology that are in constant flux, but consumer demand and market strength also fluctuate considerably.

Around this time last year I was researching the ‘Navigation & Location Europe’ conference and I was speaking to lots of LBS application developers who were telling me one thing: They wanted more support from mobile operators. This essentially came down to two points – with the lack of GPS enabled phones on the market they wanted easy and unrestricted access to Cell ID information. But, moreover, they wanted much greater help from operators when it came to promoting and getting their applications to market.

I’ve been hammering through my research on the Indian navigation market of late and have had some really interesting conversations with most of the key companies.

I can say this for sure – everyone is salivating at the sheer possibilities of the market. The numbers alone all point to massive profits and are getting people very excited.

And why not? 240 million mobile phone subscribers and 2 million new cars sold every year is not a bad starting point!

Plus there are other drivers and peculiarities that have caught my interest:

I came across some really interesting news today as huge silicon valley venture capital fund Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has set up a $100 million ‘iFund’ to invest in companies building applications for the iPhone.

What an exciting week for location news. Since I arrived back from the Navigation & Location Europe conference in Amsterdam it’s been all go for Nav&Loc!

TomTom has reported an 83% decline in net profit for the first quarter of 2008. Is this a sign of things to come for the PND market and navigation industry? Are the good times over? Have a look at the official quarterly results here. In 2007 Q1 net profits were €44 million, but you'll notice that Q1 2008 there was a significant decline to €7 million.

 

A new statistic from ABI caught my eye today. ABI has said that studies suggest 34% of all PNDs from firms including Magellan, Mio, TomTom and Dash will ship with onboard connectivity by 2013.

ABI has very kindly provided us with their 'connectivity in navigation' whitepaper, and I've included it amongst many other insightful whitepapers, reports and articles in a report portfolio that you can download absolutely free. Click here to get it!