LBS

Nokia acquires Earthmine

Nokia has acquired 3D-mapping company Earthmine. Moving quickly, the struggling mobile firm has launched a new free location cloud service called Here, available at the URL Here. net. Nokia is pushing its mapping unit hard with the introduction of the new cloud-based location brand and platform. http://thenextweb.com

Augmented reality apps may generate USD 300 mn in 2013

According to a report by ‘Mobile Augmented Reality: Entertainment, LBS & Retail Strategies 2012-2017’, about 2.5bn AR apps are expected to be downloaded to smartphones and tablets per year by 2017.Out of the total AR apps downloaded, games will account for the largest share, though the traditional payper- download payment model would continue to account for the largest share of revenues in the medium term.

There will be further growth avenues, with AR increasingly being deployed in prototype wearable devices like Google Glass. Key hurdles in the growth could be lack of consumer awareness while technological limitations of AR-enablers such as the phone camera, GPS, digital compasses and markerless tracking leads to AR failing to live up to consumer expectations. http://mobility.cbronline.com

Yandex rolls into Europe, U.S. With Digital Mapping Expansion

Hot on the heels of launching its own Internet browser and an Android app store to build out its business and keep Google at bay in its home territory, Russian search engine Yandex has quietly extended the reach of its digital mapping service — launching international maps for Europe and the U.S. The maps are powered by Navteq mapping data which Yandex licensed back in January, and can be accessed at maps. yandex.com. http://techcrunch.com

Thomson Reuters launches interactive map

Thomson Reuters has announced that it has added an interactive map for monitoring the impact of weather, natural disasters and political events on commodity production and freight to its flagship desktop, Thomson Reuters Eikon. Interactive Map allows commodity markets professionals to use innovative visualization tools to track the global movement and production of key commodities in real-time and forecast the influence of important impact factors upon supply and demand and, ultimately, market prices. http://thomsonreuters.com

China Mobile LBS Has over 20mn Users

The location based service (LBS) of China Mobile Ltd. one of the company’s nine major SP businesses, has grasped over 23 million users. Moreover, the service has also collected over 8 million pieces of information about places throughout China which users may get interested in. China Mobile has nine major business bases. The LBS base was founded in Liaoning in 2006 and is mainly engaged in the support, R&D and promotion of specialized LBS service and basic location abilities. www.sina.com.cn

XcelMobility deploys New Location Based Product

XcelMobility has signed a contract for the deployment of its advanced LBS product through an agreement with the Hubei GIS Center, China, which offers services to many of the over 57 million citizens of the province as well as to numerous enterprise subscribers located both regionally and nationally. The new Mach5 LBS product for advanced location based applications and services have been positioned as a significant all-new revenue stream for the growing Company. Its location based service offers developers and businesses a user friendly method to easily add advanced location capabilities to their mobile apps. www.xcelmobility.com