Nikkei Electronics Asia -- October 2008
Reports
a-GPS Extends Popularity of GPS Phones

The increasing popularity of GPS-enabled phones is expected to give mobile phone makers and software developers plenty of opportunities to cash in on the growth. While GPS chips are still used by most of the GPS-enabled phones, more and more new models have adopted assisted-GPS chips (a-GPS), such as the Apple 3G iPhone.

The difference between GPS and a-GPS lies in the way the phones receive signals. Portable navigation devices (PND) use GPS chips to find the orbit and clock data sent from GPS satellites circling the earth. The initial result after powering on a GPS device is called Time to First Fix (TTFF), or the time it takes for the device to receive the signal and begin calculating its position. TTFF time can range from 30 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the signal strength and sensitivity of the chip. Phones using a-GPS speed up the TTFF rate because cellular base stations or receivers search the data and pass the computation on to the phone. This is done by computer, which is usually stored with the operators. More and more mobile phones are adopting a-GPS because it offers several advantages over traditional GPS chips: it provides faster location acquisition, and less processing power is required by the phone, as well as less power.

One of the most anticipated phones this year, the Google Android phone, developed by Taiwan's HTC Corp, will offer GPS as a key feature. Google's first Android phone is expected to go on sale early in the fourth quarter from T-Mobile, both in the US and in Europe. GPS developers won a substantial share of prize money offered by Google for the Android Developer Challenge competition. Out of hundreds of entrants, Google picked the 10 best applications. Among the entries, location-based applications came out on top. One application, Life360, combines both LBS (location-based service) and social networking functions by allowing users to contact people around the community or neighborhood. Cab4Me uses Google Map and a-GPS to call a cab - but without needing to know the number of the cab company or the pick up location.

Location-Based Services

For Research in Motion (RIM), which dominates the enterprise smartphone market with its Blackberry devices, GPS is a critical component. "LBS (location-based services) and GPS are not just about phones but about solutions. We have a lot of experience in this field and have dozens of GPS applications ready for Blackberry devices," said Norm Lo, RIM's vice president for the Asia-Pacific region. Lo said Blackberry device subscribers can use their phones for both walking and driving since these devices offer turn-by-turn directions. Another area of growth, he said, is mobile resource management, where trucking companies can track their fleet, and third-party developers normally provide these solutions. "GPS solutions are now reasonably priced so what is driving the market is having the right third-party partners who can leverage the Blackberry architecture to offer valuable and important LBS services and applications."

Despite the popularity of GPS-enabled smartphones, there is still a market for PNDs because the usage behavior is still different for the mobile phone user and the car driver, said Herbert Blaser, marketing director at GPS chip maker U-Blox AG. "GPS smartphones are still expensive compared to PNDs, and PNDs offer advantages such as speakers, touchscreen interface, cradle and power supply, all of which are easy to set up and easy to use."

by Van Tran

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