As more and more mobile devices come on the market with GPS capabilities, consumer demand for location-based services (LBS) such as navigation is growing. According to the latest Telephia research, LBS represented 51% of the 118 million in revenue that downloadable mobile applications such as LBS, weather applications, chat/community, and personal organization tools generated during Q2. In addition, more favorable carrier deck placement for LBS applications and the bundling of navigation services with data packages have contributed to record high downloads. However, overall consumer penetration for mobile applications hovers around 5%, as compared to penetration rates of 7-13% for other downloadable content like games, ringtones and premium SMS.
LBS applications command a healthy price premium compared to other downloadable mobile applications. The average price per month for an LBS application is 9.23, as compared to a range of 3.82-5.41 for weather applications, sports, wallpapers/pictures, etc. Telephia also reported that:
* 13 million mobile consumers downloaded a mobile application on their phone.
* Of the 118 million in revenue that downloadable mobile applications such as LBS, weather applications, chat/community, and personal organization tools generated during Q2 2007, LBS represented 51%.
