We recently heard about a new industry group aimed at driving the adoption of indoor positioning services. It’s called the In-Location Alliance and contains 22 tech companies including Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung and Sony.
Now ABI Research has published a report noting that the indoor location and application market is entering a new phase of growth. In particular it’s noted the importance of retail, with a particular emphasis on the grocery, clothing, DIY/warehouse and shopping mall sectors. It says retailers are now happy to create their own indoor maps and to build applications and services themselves rather than relying on free GPS-based maps.
Patrick Connolly, senior analyst at ABI Research, said “This is a market that is undergoing rapid growth, reaching 500,000 maps by 2015. Most companies are currently using a monthly license fee ($20-$1000), but business models are already changing, with all leading indoor mapping companies now expanding into application development, indoor location technologies, analytics, and advertising. Increasingly, the bulk of revenues will come from these emerging areas.”
[Reports]