Smartphones taking over location based services

BANGALORE, INDIA: Smartphones are emerging as the platform-of-choice for location-based services, with the number of navigation systems for the advanced handsets soaring almost forty-fold in 2014, a market research firm says.

The number of smartphone navigation systems, either shipping with the phones or offered by third parties after sale is projected to rise to 81 million units this year, a tenfold increase from 2009, and to 297 million by 2014, a Information Week report said quoting iSuppli.

"Smartphones over the next decade will rival PCs as a market for hardware, software, communications and location-based services," iSuppli analyst Danny Kim said in a statement. Over the last two years, the smartphone has become the most important platform for map and navigation usage, according to iSuppli. In fact, maps have become a standard feature in a growing number of smartphones.