wirelessappsandlbs

Introduction

Wireless, Wireless Data and LBS are filled with acronyms and new ones are being created monthly. Some readers will be very familiar with many of them and some not. We've defined several of them below to help with comprehension.

Below we've included a brief background and history of wireless enterprise and consumer applications and location-based services.

We focus here on "wireless wide area network (WWAN)" applications, used by truly mobile users, to contrast with "wireless local area network" (WLAN) technologies, like 802.11 or wi-fi, which are used in a building environment. WLAN LBS applications for things like warehouse, plant and yard tracking are indeed available and in-use as well.

Wireless Apps

Wireless Data Applications using wide area mobile devices started in the 1980's, with the introduction of the Ardis packet switched network, used by IBM Field Service, in 1983. A similar system, Mobitex, was introduced in 1986 by Ericsson in Sweden and later became the network of choice for Research in Motion's (RIM) paging and later Blackberry devices. Dial-up wireless modem access also became available on analog (AMPS) and digital (e.g. TDMA and GSM) cell phones. Early satellite-based mobile resource management (MRM)  - arguably the first wireless location-based service (LBS) application - was introduced by what is now Qualcomm's with their Omnitracs product in 1988.

The late 1990's saw a parallel introduction of the so-called "wireless web" on mobile phones and various implementations including Wireless Application Protocol (WAP, pioneered by what is now Openwave), subsets of the web's Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) on PDA's, and the first client/server implementations, like Palm Query Application (PQA's) on Palm using the Palm VII, a personal data assistant (PDA) with the first integrated wireless wide area modem. In addition, Short Message Service (or SMS), introduced with the Global System for Communication (GSM) enabled simple text messages (a basic client/server application) and later messaging based applications.

The idea of extending the PC- and server-based web to small handheld devices, turned out to be fraught with usability, performance and reliability problems. PC web sites can't be simply "shrunk" to a small screen device that operates on a occasionally connected, slower and variable speed connection device, though that hasn't stopped people from trying!

The introduction by Sun and Qualcomm respectively of Java 2 Micro-Edition (J2ME) and BREW on handsets, as well as wireless PDA's from Research in Motion (RIM), Palm and Microsoft Pocket PC (later Windows Mobile) PDA manufacturers and others like Symbian, helped solved the "shrunken web" problems. Instead of a browser and server based approach where all usage requires a network connection and the bulk of a processing is performed on a server (server-centric), these platforms provide a programmable environment to make wireless applications customized to the screen size of the device, more responsive (lower latency), faster (response time) and more reliable using a client/server communication model. In client/server, much of the processing can be done on the device (the client) and the server is used mostly to retrieve and share larger data stores than can fit on the client. Many of the most successful wireless data applications - SMS, wireless e-mail, ring tones, wallpapers, screen savers, games, most music, GPS tracking and voice navigation - all use some form of the client/server model.

As cellular coverage became more widespread, digital cellular technology like GSM and code-division multiple access (CDMA) with standard internet protocol (IP) became ubiquitous, services and programmable handset prices declined, a wide range of wireless applications became available and more commonly used. The introduction of more memory, display and processing power on handsets, along with higher bandwidth (with technologies like EDGE, 1XRTT, UMTS, EV-DO/Rev A,  HSPDA, HSUPA and LTE) makes wireless downloads of content and client/server applications easier and faster.  Other applications require broadband and low latency like high quality streaming video, VOIP, and video chat are now possible.

Location Based Services (LBS)

Qualcomm's Omnitracs might be called the initial wireless location-based service, using satellites (though generally not GPS) positioning and communications initially to provide long-haul trucking companies positioning, messaging and application capability, the first mobile resource management (MRM) system for enterprises. The introduction of cellular data capability and the U.S. Department of Defense's Global Positioning System (GPS) made "black boxes" for vehicle tracking, or Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL), more commonplace, and the availability of high speed PC-Internet access allowed companies like @Road (now owned by Trimble) to make AVL and MRM more commonly used. AVL capability has spread throughout the world, driven in large part by ubiquitous packet data capability (e.g. GSM Packet Radio System or GPRS) on cellular networks.

In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandate to locate cell phone callers when they dialed an emergency number, or enhanced 911 (E911), proved to be a boon for location-based services. iDEN (e.g. Nextel), CDMA (e.g. Sprint and Verizon Wireless) wireless operators decided to use GPS to provide the location for E911. GSM operators like Cingular (now at&t) and T-Mobile decided to use cell-site triangulation for E911, which has more limited accuracy and doesn't support key LBS applications. There are many other position determination techniques (and acronyms!) including cell site, cell sector, AFLT, TDOA, E-TDOA whose usability, availability and performance varies by implementation and application.

The first integrated GPS, programmable cellular devices in the U.S. were the Motorola i88s and i58sr iden Handsets, offered by Nextel (now Sprint-Nextel). These programmable J2ME devices had integrated GPS receivers, a network-assisted GPS (A-GPS implementation) which dramatically helps certain parts of GPS perormance,  application programming interfaces (API's) accessible to developers, and a mostly open development environment.  These features were critical to the takeoff of the current consumer and enterprise wireless location-based services mass-market. Portable Internet, Actsoft and IT2ME (now part of Actsoft) quickly introduced popular GPS Tracking products and were followed by @Road, Gearworks,Telenav, Xora and others. Telenav,Networks in Motion and others added wireless voice navigation which proved to be a key LBS application.

The i88 and i58 were followed by many additional iDEN devices from Motorola, the first BlackBerry PDA's with integrated GPS from RIM (also on Nextel), then the first CDMA phones and phones with some access to position offered by Sprint and later Verizon Wireless, and then Cingular's (now at&t) introduction of the HP6500, HP 6900 and RIM 8800 PDA's with integrated GPS over 2006 and early 2007. Nokia announced a variety of GPS-equipped, GSM handsets in late 2006 and early 2007 and many more are expected.The introduction of LBS and even E911 is still in fits and starts, largely because the successful implementation has many pieces with complex interactions that are not easily understood.

As of April, 2007, integrated GPS and associated applications are widely available on CDMA and some other networks in Korea and Japan, with somewhat more limited availability in other countries like the U.S., Canada, and Brazil. However, there were only limited introductions of integrated GPS on mass-market handsets in the GSM market worldwide which has 70% of all cell phones. In Europe while cell site positioning, portable navigation devices (PND's)  and Bluetooth GPS receivers are available for cell phones, the conditions for a mass-market takeoff don't yet exist. Today virtually every handset worldwide has an Assisted GPS capability (A-GPS) and many smartphones have accelerometers, gyroscopes and Wi-FI positioning technology to improve indoor and outdoor location.  Smartphones with many gigabits of memory, GHz processors, 3.5" or larger screens, high res cameras, and broadband internet access are becoming the dominant class of device.

LBS Applications Today

Besides E911, the most popular consumer and enterprise LBS applications include some form of tracking (employee, friend, family, pet, truck, trailer, check-in) and mapping, routing (directions) or voice navigation. Other applications include workflow (LBS-enabled dispatch and data collection) like field service and proof of delivery, traffic, messaging, real-estate, hiking, mapping and directions. Location-based local search, social networking and advertising, augmented reality are now popular.

Navigation and tracking are still the top applications by revenue and usage, though social media applications like Gowalla, Foursquare or Facebook check-in features have been getting a lot of visibility. GPS navigation became the top downloaded wireless application by revenue in 2009, despite Google's introduction of free GPS Navigation on Android in late 2009 and similar moves by Nokia and Microsoft in 2010. Two of the pioneering wireless GPS navigation companies made venture capital exits in 2010; Telenav (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile USA) went public and TCS bought NIM, makers of Verizon Wireless' VZ Navigator.