LBS market thrives on the growth of GPS-enabled devices

DUBLIN, IRELAND: The analysts forecast the global Location-based Service (LBS) market to grow at a CAGR of 35.25 percent over the period 2012-2016. Research and Markets, in its report mentioned that one of the main factors driving the market is the increasing adoption of GPS-enabled devices. The adoption of GPS-enabled devices such as smartphones, tablets, PNDs, handhelds devices, wrist-worn devices, two-way radios, sports devices, and portable LBS devices has increased significantly over the past few years.

Several industries are increasingly adopting LBS devices to enhance the efficiency of their supply chain operations. LBS applications are used to track logistics, vehicle movements, stocks (commodities at outdoor outlets), and for inventory management. The Retail and Food and Beverages industries are the two major industries where LBS devices are increasingly used in SCM to reduce transportation costs.

In addition, the increasing adoption of LBS in fleet management provides a competitive advantage for companies since it helps establish communication between drivers and fleet management operators. Thus, the increasing adoption of LBS across industries augurs well for the growth of the market during the forecast period.

Further, the report states that one of the main challenges is growing concerns over privacy. In order to be able to effectively use various LBS applications such as the friend finder application, location-based games, location-based coupons, location-based deals, and location-based advertisements, LBS users have to reveal their location to the respective network providers, advertisers, and other third parties.