LOCATION-BASED SERVICES

Location-based services are growing in popularity and demand among mobile phone consumers. And there are an ever-increasing number of mobile operators around the world that are using location technology for both consumer and commercial services. These types of services range from fleet tracking, safety, route finders, restaurant and taxi services, to gaming. Blister Entertainment is focused on gaming and entertainment.

The biggest reason around the hype of location-based services is the increased revenue opportunities mobile operators can realize by offering useful and entertaining products to their subscribers. This new revenue stream is realized by increased data traffic on the operator's network. Voice calls still account for a large percentage of revenue for mobile operators however, it is forecast that voice calls will decrease as much as 10 to 15 per cent worldwide in the next 2 years. Operators are looking at location-based services as a key revenue source that can help battle the decline in voice call revenue.

A recently published white paper by Nokia cites: Consumers are becoming more aware that their mobile phones are actually small computers, capable of helping them in many useful ways. New application areas such as interactive navigation, community services, and location aware gaming are particularly important in making the most of the mobile advantage.

The Nokia paper also states: Ease of use, personalization and focus on the needs of the consumer are also crucial elements in the success of location aware applications, as is the availability of a variety of technologies such as GPS, GPRS, HTML browsing and MMS.

Location-based services are receiving a lot of attention amongst industry analysts, mobile operators, location services providers, and game and entertainment companies. Strategy Analytics (March 2003) estimates that in 2008, location-enabled services will generate over $8 billion in global service revenues.

Blister Entertainment is at the forefront of this emerging industry category.