Google offers live traffic maps on cell phones
Google has announced that it is offering mobile phone users to view highway maps with live traffic data. Available initially in 30 U.S. cities, Google Maps for mobile will show traffic, with road conditions highlighted in three colors: red means congested, yellow & orange means slowdowns and green for open traffic. The service combines satellite imagery, directions, and traffic data – – completely free. One can check out the service by going to http://google. com/gmm on mobile phone. Currently,
it’s only available in the U.S. market.

Personal navigation most profitable LBS in Europe
Berg Insight made the survey among LBS professionals at mobile operators, vendors and consultancies. There were two sets of questions asked to the 200 respondents, one to operators and another set to vendors and consultancies. We asked the operators which LBS applications they already have deployed and got the reply that the most common services today are information services. On second and third place came navigation services and tracking. We also asked the operators which positioning technology they think will be the most important the coming years. The majority, 65 percent, replied a combination of two or more technologies, while 35 percent said A-GPS. It is obvious that satellite positioning is coming up as a preferred technology among operators in Europe.www.lbsinsight.com

Navigate with Garmin StreetPilot 2820
Garmin International Inchas announced the StreetPilot 2820, a premium automotive and motorcycle navigation device for customers, as well as a configurable platform for Garmin’s growing list of OEM partners. The StreetPilot 2820 builds upon the success of the StreetPilot 2700 series, and also incorporates Bluetooth wireless connectivity and a hands-free calling interface.
www.garmin.com

US LBS market to grow to 1 million subscribers by 2010
Depending largely on the cellular operators actions, the US LBS business market is forecast to grow to from 582,000 to 1.1 million subscribed devices by the end of 2010, reports In-Stat. Location-enabled enterprise applications constitute a small but important segment of the market for mobile IT applications, the high-tech market research firm says. Applications for this technology include fleet management/dispatch, workforce and sales force management, as well as a variety of public sector location applications.
www.instat.com

Chunghwa Telecom and SiRF to offer A-GPS services
Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan announced the formation of an alliance with SiRF International to establish an A-GPS platform for operation of mobile location services in the Taiwan market. CHT has finished R&D and testing of the A-GPS platform that integrates GPS technology with CHT’s mobile communication infrastructure, It initially offered A-GPS services to Taiwan SECOM, one of the largest provider of security services in Taiwan, at the end of last year and plans to offer personal A-GPS value-added services to mobile communication users later this year.
www.digitimes.com