News
Mobile Streams to kick-start LBS
Tim Green Mar 14 2007, 10:30am
Start-up Connectid is so keen to get location-based content services moving that it’s going to make its own handsets to ‘front load’ the market.
The New York-based company, run by content giant Mobile Streams, will launch in August with the aim of transforming the part played by location in mobile entertainment.
It claims to have created a chip that can improve the LBS capabilities of GSM devices, using Assisted GPS (AGPS). But rather than wait for the major manufacturers to engage, it will make its own handsets and sell them direct to operators. The company will also make single-purpose location-aware devices such as pet collars.
“The big vendors always start with high-end handsets, but we want to create services that everyone can use,” said Simon Buckingham, CEO of Mobile Streams and Connectid. “If we build these location-based applications into our own devices, we can make them genuinely tangible for people.”
These services could include: location-sensitive ads; social networking that lets users tell friends that they’re nearby; location-aware gaming; city guides and maps; localised search; pet tagging and more.
Connectid is busy creating content applications around these concepts with the aim of white-labelling them to GSM operators. Ultimately, the company believes the real money is in services, rather than hardware. It is also confident that applications targeted at parents and senior citizens will open up the market for underserved demographics.
The company certainly has the cash and backers to make its vision work. Connectid is owned by investment group Liberty Media, which has stakes in News Corp, Expedia and others. When Liberty bought 22 per cent of Mobile Streams last year, it granted the content company a five-year contract to run Connectid, which was spun out of Liberty and another entity, True Position.
The Connectid exec team is drawn from Disney, Mobile365, Sprint and others.
