Annual shipments of GPS-enabled phones will grow rapidly over the period 2008-2012. ARCchart predicts that by 2012, GPS phones will account for 37% of all shipments (535 million).The number of users of mobile location services accessed via GPS phones is also expected to grow strongly. ARCchart predicts that by 2012 the worldwide user base of the most popular location-enabled services, navigation and mobile social networking, will reach 150 and 127 million respectively. This growth in the availability of handset location information (LI) raises many questions about the degree to which users can be protected from potential abuses of their LI.

In this report, ARCchart examines the market for GPS phones, location finding techniques, legal and regulatory implications of GPS phones and technologies available for managing location privacy. ARCchart’s analysis of the emerging LBS market reveals that there is a potential for serious abuses of location privacy in cases where the use of location information has not been adequately regulated.

Topics of coverage include:
-A review of positioning technologies that allow handsets to be located
-Descriptions of the main types of LBS applications: personal security, navigation, education & gaming, enterprise, -social networking, commerce and Government
-Analysis of the legal, regulatory and technological mechanisms available for the protection of location privacy
-Examination of existing government regulation in selected countries/regions
-Discussion of various industry initiatives and codes of practice
-Recommendations for regulators, operators and LBS providers to ensure protection of personal location information
-Forecasts for annual GPS phone shipment and total installed base of GPS handsets
-Forecast for user numbers of the main types of LBS applications

Companies and organisations mentioned, discussed or reviewed include:

3 UK
Argyll Telecom
BlueSky Positioning
Cellfire
CityNeo
CTIA (US)
European Commission (EC)
European Space Agency
FCC
followGB
FollowUS
Global Locate
Google
Helio
Infineon
KDDI
LG
MeetMoi
Microsoft
Ministry of Information and Industry (China)
Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (Japan)
Mobile Commerce
Mobile Marketing Association
Mobiqa
Motorola
Navizon
Network in Motion
NeuStar
Nokia
O2
OECD
Ofcom (UK)
Open Geospatial Consortium
Open Mobile Alliance (OMA)
Openwave
Orange
Orbis
Ordnance Survey
PCCW Directories
Qualcomm
RealReplay
Shozu
Skyhook
Sprint Nextel
Symbian
TCS
Tele Atlas
TeleNav
TI
The Location Company
The Shroud
Trueposition
UpGrade InTouch
Verisign
Verizon
Vodafone
WaveMarkets
WeatherBug


Answers and opinions are provided with respect to the following essential questions:

-How will GPS handset volumes grow over the coming years?
-What is the significance of active and passive location services?
-How is handset location accuracy set to evolve?
-Why is it important that location privacy regulation is not restricted to operators?
-What are the location applications which have the biggest implications for privacy?
-How is E911, E112, eCall and ELRS affecting the GPS phone market?
-What are the techniques for managing location privacy?
-How effective has industry self-regulation been?
-Why should a piecemeal approach to regulation be avoided?