Digital Lifescapes

What if mobile applications like Google Maps could provide insight about the inside of large public buildings and other big structures? Would independent software developers find new and interesting ways to tap this data in their smartphone apps?  While there won't be an immediate surge in indoor location-enabled handsets and applications, it's now anticipated that the ecosystem necessary to drive mass adoption of indoor location applications will be in place by 2016. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, the future adoption of a variety of indoor location and proximity related technologies or hybrids are being considered across a range of different application categories -- such as retail, navigation, enterprise, personal tracking and social. Meanwhile, these apps are also expected to enhance mobile enhanced services such as advertising, ambient intelligence, augmented reality, photography, and local search. Even at this early stage, it is already clear...

comScore released data about key trends in the Canadian mobile phone industry for September 2011. The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone operating system (OS) platforms in Canada. In September, 20.1 million Canadians ages 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.2 percent of mobile subscribers in Canada, followed by LG with 20.0 percent share and RIM with 14.3 percent share. Apple ranked fourth with 12.0 percent share of subscribers, while Nokia rounded out the top five at 10.1 percent. 8 million people in Canada owned smartphones in September 2011, representing 40 percent of the mobile market in Canada -- a gain of 7 percentage points in the past six months. RIM ranked as the top platform with 35.8 percent of the smartphone market, followed by Apple at 30.1 percent. Google Android gained ground among the competition by doubling its market share to 25.0 over the past six mon...

comScore released results of a U.S. market study of mobile map usage. The study found that 48 million people accessed online maps via their mobile device during the three month period ending May 2011 -- that's an increase of 39 percent from the previous year, driven in large part by the increase in smartphone adoption. The study found that map usage via mobile applications (apps) was the primary access point for smartphone owners -- as the map app audience doubled in size over the past year. A comparative look at map usage among fixed-Internet users (i.e. accessing from a home or work computer) found that map visitation saw a slight decline in total audience in May 2011 versus the previous year, dipping 2 percent, while still maintaining a substantially larger audience of 93.8 million visitors. "The strong growth in mobile map usage and flattening of desktop map usage is indicative of broader behavioral shifts being wrought by smartphones," said Mark Donovan, comSc...

According to the latest study by comScore , 14 percent of mobile users in the U.S. accessed maps on their devices in April 2010 -- as the mobile map audience reached 33.5 million users, up 44 percent from the previous year. The market study also found that more mobile users now access maps via applications than via Web browser, demonstrating the success of applications in penetrating the mobile map market. "People are increasingly turning to their mobile phone for maps and directions when on the go," said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile. For the three month period ending April 2010, 26 percent of smartphone users accessed maps via applications, while 19 percent accessed maps via browser in a month. In comparison, just 2 percent of feature phone users accessed maps via applications, with 4 percent doing so via browser. Smartphone users drove growth in both application and browser map usage with app access nearly tripling to 12.7 million smartphon...