ABI Research Forecasts Personal Locator Services to Reach More than 20 Million North American Consumers by 2011.

NEW YORK -- Personal locator services based on the GPS-enabled mobile phone will grow from their current small user-base of just 500,000 in North America to a total of more than 20 million subscribers in 2011, according to a new study from ABI Research.

Such location-based services, recently launched as "family-finder" options by Sprint Nextel, Verizon Wireless, and Disney Mobile, have now been joined by a new offering from youth-oriented mobile operator Helio. Badged as the "Buddy Beacon," the service allows users of Helio's Samsung Drift handsets to build a "buddy list" and broadcast their locations to each other for display on GPS-linked maps.

"Helio's Buddy Beacon is going to be very popular," says ABI Research senior analyst Ken Hyers. "It's innovative. This is the first service of its kind in North America."

However, he warns, there are possible downsides. "Users must remember that they can switch the function on and off, and should manage their buddy lists prudently. The service concept is strong, but people who use it must be aware of the 'stalkerware' implications. It's a major reason why operators have been so cautious about how they implement 'family-finder' services."

First launched in South Korea and Japan, personal locator services are not well-entrenched yet even there, but on a conservative forecast could reach 34 million Asia-Pacific subscribers by 2011. They are expected to go on offer in Western Europe next year.

Virtually all such locator services are currently offered by CDMA operators: they're the ones with the GPS-enabled phones. "I expect that the GSM/UMTS operators will start offering this next year," Hyers observes, "but they will suffer a significant time lag because there is not yet a large market of GPS-enabled handsets. Beginning in 2008 they will become more common on GSM/UMTS networks, and by around 2009 those operators will begin to have significant subscriber numbers using these services as well."

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