Alex Watson
Using your phone’s GPS to find out where you are is just the beginning, as location-based services will be hard fought over by Apple and Google.
In previous columns, I’ve talked about how Apple is increasingly concerned about its dependence on Google. This is unsurprising: while people who currently want a web- or app-orientated smartphone currently choose between units running Google’s Android or Apple’s iOS, even when Apple ‘wins’ by selling a customer an iPhone, that customer will still use Google services such as web search, Gmail and Maps. Every time an iPhone customer uses these, Google gets to gather data on that person and serve adverts – strengthening its core business. On the contrary, if the customer buys an Android device, Apple gets nothing.
Not only is this in itself an issue, but the more people use web services – particularly Google web services – arguably the less important the hardware they’re using becomes. This is exactly what Google wants. Its business is predicated on driving Internet usage; hardware is just a means to an end and it suits the G-men for web access to be as cheap as possible. Apple wants the exact opposite: to keep people invested in (‘tied to’ or ‘locked in’, if you’re feeling cynical) its premium products and keen to buy a new iPhone when their current one reaches the end of its life.
As such, Apple wants to keep Google at arm’s length. Unlike Microsoft, which is confronting Google head on in web search with Bing, Apple is being a little sneakier, probing possible weak points and playing a longer game. In the last Mac to the Future, I mentioned Apple’s interest in voice search as one such example. Another area in which the company is interested is location-based services and search, and it has made a series of acquisitions and moves to strengthen its hand in this area.
A reader of tech blog TechCrunch noticed that in a reply to a US Congressional query about changes to its privacy policy, Apple revealed that the changes were to cover the fact it had stopped relying on Google for providing location-based services (techcrunch.com/2010/07/29/apple-location).
As Apple’s general counsel, Bruce Sewell, put it in his reply: ‘For devices running iPhone OS versions 1.1.3 to 3.1, Apple relied on (and still relies on) databases maintained by Google and Skyhook Wireless to provide location-based services. Beginning with the iPhone OS version 3.2 released in April 2010, Apple relies on its own databases to provide location-based services and for diagnostic purposes.’
The first generation of GPS-enabled phones did little more than use the GPS to plot your location on a map that was just a series of Jpegs. Where current phones better this is that they’re increasingly aware of ‘places’ – and they use this to give you (and take from you) more information.
A good example of this is how Google Maps now has hotels and restaurants plotted on it, which link through to reviews and images. There’s also current buzz app Foursquare, which takes Twitter-style social mechanics and applies it not to status messages, but to location. With Foursquare, you ‘check into’ the place you are (say, a bar), so your friends can see without explicitly needing to ask you where you are. Right now I can see my friend Lawrence is at a restaurant called Roast, Richard is at Baskin Robbins and Matt is still at work.
Unusually for a start up, Foursquare is nakedly commercial in its outlook: when you check in, you notice certain places nearby have special offers for Foursquare users (essentially adverts), and it’s also partnered with brands to create virtual tours of areas of certain cities when said brand is launching a new product.
By moving to its own location database, Apple is denying Google a rich seam of data – and it’s also opening up the possibility of creating features unique to iOS. One of these is the ‘find my phone’ feature, but that’s clearly just the beginning – knowing where people are has clear commercial value and it will be very valuable to Apple as it approaches the launch of its own iAds advertising system. Imagine watching the ad/app for a new Pixar movie and then getting a pop up notice the next day saying, ‘Hey, the movie’s on in an hour round the corner’. And, of course, because Apple and iTunes already has your payment details, you can buy the tickets right then and there, booking the seats through an app on the phone. When the movie comes out on iTunes, it’s a hop skip and a jump to serving you an ad for that, too.
Location data isn’t just valuable for nakedly commercial purposes, though: Foursquare has taken many by surprise with its popularity. There are many downsides to it: the app itself is clunky and checking in is time consuming. There are privacy worries, especially with a company that so clearly has its eyes on a massive IPO. However, there’s a kernel of goodness to it: I love Roast as a restaurant and next time I see Lawrence I’ll be sure to ask him how he found it. It’s quite late when I’m writing this column, so I’m a bit worried Matt’s still at the office; I’ll see if he’s around for a beer next weekend.
This is on a personal level; zoom out and location-based services have a role to play for the infrastructure of our towns and cities. Apps that show train station departure boards are already popular, and even though London’s cycle hire scheme has just launched, there are already multiple apps for finding the bike docking stations and plotting a route through the city. The docking stations output data about how many bikes are there and how many docking points are free, data that apps can access. Several councils around the UK are looking at producing apps to promote services and allow residents to report maintenance issues such as broken street lights. APIs will no longer be for software; physical infrastructure will output data that apps will be able to make use of.
It’s common for first-time iPhone users to marvel at how much computing power it packs in, but the real revolution with modern smartphones is that this amount of computing power is ever present. Phones are much more personal than the PC has ever been and the rise in location-based services means they’re set to become an increasingly intimate extension of ourselves.
