Indoor Location Applications to Break 1 Billion Downloads by 2016

While there won’t be an immediate surge in indoor location-enabled handsets and applications, the ecosystem necessary to drive mass adoption of indoor location applications will be in place by 2016. In ABI Research’s report, “Indoor Location Smartphone Applications”, the future adoption of a variety of indoor location and proximity technologies/hybrids are considered across a range of different application categories, such as retail, navigation, enterprise, personal tracking and social, while also enhancing services such as advertising, ambient intelligence, augmented reality, photography, and local search. Even at this early stage, it is clear that indoor location will play a major part in the future of mobile.

“The market is still very nascent with a number of major handset vendors yet to decide on what technologies they will adopt,” comments senior analyst Patrick Connolly. “In particular, any decision from Google will have huge repercussions, depending on whether it opens up the Android platform or not. There are also issues around indoor maps, data ownership, and interoperability across technologies, buildings, and OS platforms. By 2016, the ecosystem will have evolved sufficiently that ABI Research is forecasting strong adoption of indoor location applications, catalyzed by the increasing availability of in-store applications and services.”

Practice Director Dominique Bonte adds: “As smartphones proliferate, and privacy barriers come down, location will become increasingly used to enhance existing and new services. Indoor/ubiquitous location is a natural extension of this inevitable trend."

These findings are part of ABI Research’s Location Based Services and Mobile Carrier Strategies Research Services, which include Research Analysis, Market Data, Insights, and Competitive Assessments focused on the indoor location market.

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 70+ research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.