A Catalyst for Location Based Services
Qualcomm has announced that their BREW platform will now offer support for location-bases applications. Using Qualcomm’s QPoint platform, application developers can easily add location to their existing content, and any new apps. While all carriers are moving towards location determination technologies in response to the FCC E911 mandate, CDMA carriers have a lead in deploying position-determining systems, and in fact almost all of the CDMA phones sold over the last half year have assisted GPS built-into them. Many customers have wondered where the services are to go along with this GPS feature of their phone. Well, so far, the carriers have been focusing resources on the E911 aspect of LBS, but we expect a shift of that focus towards value-added applications that you can actually use when you’re not dialing 911. The QPoint launch will speed the development of LBS apps by standardizing a set of APIs and procedures that make it easier for developers and customers, much like BREW accelerated the market for downloadable apps. We only expect to see QPoint from existing BREW carriers incl. Verizon Wireless, Alltel, and US Cellular.
