Analysis of critical success factors of Mobile Location-based Services

Abstract

The wide adoption of GPS-enabled mobile phones and the increment of the accuracy of positioning technologies have stimulated the appearance of many novel Location-based Services (LBS). A LBS system retrieves geographical location of user's mobile device and provides service based on the location data. LBS services can be used for various purposes, like emergency, tracking, navigation, mobile social networking, mobile charging, and so on. Players in mobile business believe that LBS service is a new revenue resouree. However, the current situation and the future of LBS market is still vague.

This study analyzes the critical success factors of LBS services for sports and tourism purposes. A framework is proposed to evaluate two novel LBS services: existing Nokia Sports Tracker and non-existing Tourism Guide. A successful LBS service should create values for both customers and other players in value network. This study also investigates whether some features of Nokia Sports Tracker can be reused for developing Tourism Guide. The analysis shows that the extension is highly possible, as there are many common functionalities between them and the value network can also be easily extended by introducing more content providers.