New data is showing that many of the industry giants are making location based progress.
According to some of the latest information that has been released by ABI Research, a number of industry giants – including Google, Apple, and eBay – are placing their focus on making considerable moves into the realm of geolocation and its many possibilities.
Though this is not necessarily anything new, it is the fact that they are taking it indoors that is drawing attention.
To start, the estimates by ABI Research have suggested that the geolocation indoor market will be worth more than $4 billion by 2018. This was revealed in the quarterly Location Technologies Market Data which is issued by that agency. It provides a measure of the adoption of indoor geolocation technologies, mapping, as well as businesses that are making their way into this particular space.
By the end of next year, the overall market of geolocation technology installations will be greater than 25,000.
This, according to the ABI Research data that was released in the report. It also pointed out that smartphones that are capable of supporting indoor geolocation technology will have reached the hundreds of millions over the span of the next two years. The result is that virtually every major company will have begun to take considerable steps into this sphere.
Patrick Connolly, an ABI Research senior analyst, stated that “Apple’s new A7 co-processor coupled with the acquisition of WifiSLAM highlights indoor as a priority.” He went on to say that “Both Apple and eBay have announced support for dedicated BLE beacons, a technology that is set for a huge 2014 as major IC and device OEMs make it widely available.”
Connolly also explained that Google is maintaining an expansion of geolocation based indoor mapping and that it has been discussing some of its intentions for this technology quite openly at I/O. He also added that it isn’t just the smartphone manufacturers that are involved in this technology, as there have been four large AP providers (Motorola, Cisco, Ruckus, and Aruba) that have acquired business within this space. He noted that it was interesting to find that Nokia had held its own indoor and mapping capabilities, showing that this was being viewed as a region in which considerable future growth was possible.
Mobile games are beginning to hold sway over the game industry as a whole
The game industry is currently experience a monumental shift as a new generation of consumers and technology enter into prominent markets around the world. For the past several decades, the game industry has been solely focused on console platforms, as well as PCs. The advent of mobile technology changed that focus, however, especially as advanced smartphones and tablets became extremely popular. Mobile games have quickly become one of the most lucrative aspects of the game industry, which has encouraged developers to swarm to the mobile space in order to take advantage of this popularity.
Developers beginning to swarm the mobile space
A few short years ago, mobile games were considered little more than novelty. They have, however, become one of the most successful fields in the game industry. Consumers around the world have shown that they are exceedingly interested in mobile games of all types, sinking hours upon hours of their times into games like Angry Birds and Temple Run. As these games find more and more traction among consumers, a growing number of developers are breaking away from publishers in order to establish their independent pedigree, much to the delight of consumers.
Consoles may be in for a tough fight
As developers find more success with mobile games, they are beginning to hold more power over the game industry. The industry has long been dominated by consoles, such as the Playstation and Xbox, but mobile devices are threatening to dethrone these platforms. A new generation of consoles is expected to be released sometime this year by Sony and Microsoft, but whether these platforms will be able to compete with mobile games has yet to be seen. ABI Research, a leading market research firm, suggests that competition with mobile games may be fierce.
Research firm suggests that mobile games are cutting into console opportunities with casual gamers
According to ABI Research, mobile games have diminished the opportunities available to consoles in the casual gaming market. Mobile games have introduced consumers to a new business model, wherein they can get the games they are interested in for free or for a very small fee. In general, mobile games that do cost money are $5 to purchase, at their most expensive. The vast majority of these games, however, are free. Many of these games do have in-app purchases that are, at times, somewhat controversial with some consumers, but these have not diminished the appeal of mobile games in any significant manner.
