• DigiTimes, Monday, July 19, 2010 12:50 PM

Ushering in the broad adoption of location-based Web services, nearly 80% of cell phones shipped in the fourth quarter of 2011 will incorporate GPS functionality, predicts market research firm iSuppli. As DigiTimes.com reports, by the end of next year, some 318.3 million GPS-supported units will be sold -- up from 56.1% in the first quarter of 2009, or 187.8 million units.

"The smartphone is the key product driving the technology industry today, and social networking services and applications spurred by GPS-related features are critical elements in the smart phone market today," said Jagdish Rebello, director and principal analyst for iSuppli. "This is illustrated by Google's decision to make turn-by-turn navigation, LBS and mobile ads the central features in its bid to take on Apple in the smartphone market, and make up the central pillars of its strategy to increasingly monetize mobile search." As a result, the smartphone boom is likely to generate many innovative location-based apps in the next five years. Apple's iPhone already has more than 6,000 LBS apps available, iSuppli said.

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