"While location-industry value chains have long remained fragmented, the ongoing trend towards consolidation is finally moving the location based services industry into a mature stage," says ABI Research principal analyst Dominique Bonte.

"The expected growth of the LBS and navigation applications and services market and the necessity of improving profitability through economies of scale are the main drivers behind these vertical integration trends. These forces are demonstrated by the acquisition of digital map providers by PND vendor TomTom and handset manufacturer Nokia, the increasing dominance of a limited number of major brands, and recent efforts by carriers to enter the LBS market in Europe and the US.

While the LBS market has been characterized by a large number of services, the industry is now increasingly focused on a limited number of applications such as off-board navigation and social networking, around which features such as location-based search and friend finders are centered.

Related Links
Location Based Services (LBS) Ecosystem and Value Chains
GPS Applications, Technology and Suppliers