Wireless Carrier Starting To Release Their Location Data
The competition among the wireless carriers have heated up to the point where Sprint and Verizon are about to open their systems to make them really useful for their customers. (Finally!) Sprint and Verizon are working on ways for apps on high end phones to be able to locate the user. It is a year behind the iPhone and 3 months behind the Google phone, but better late than never. The real question is will developers put much effort into developing for these platforms? For example, Sprint is planning to open their systems using partners like uLocate and WaveMarket. These solutions have been out their for a while. What is the new incentive to create apps around these other companies’ apps? And what kind of hassel will developers have getting location info in this round about way?
Alltel is working with Trimble to create a new app that lets uses plan and keep track of their travels on their phones. They can also attach photos, audio and video from the trip to specific lat,lon coordinates. As opposed to several free Web 2.0 services that have these functions, this service cost $40/year. Some people might pay for it for the convienence, but only if they are unaware of the free options.