The Loki Planet Guide

The mighty Om thinks that WiFi location based services will be the next kickstart in the industry.

I agree that this could be the killer app, the SMS of WiFi/Max, that could really be a key integration point for Muni nets, FON networks and the newest WiFi enabled handsets.

He mentions Loki so I went off to have a quick look. It seems pretty interesting and it made me revisit a previous idea for book readers. Combining LBS with a brand like The Lonely Planet would be a pretty powerful partnership; apply the whole thing in a PDA or some other WiFi enabled device that makes book reading easy (something like Nokia's 770) and you have your own tour guide in your pocket that is as close to being smart as you can get. It will be able to know which country you're in and allow you to subscribe to the guide for that country, or mini-guide for that city. Once walking around the LBS granularity would enable a smart book mark to move you to the section of the guide for where you are.

I think the possibilities for LBS are good and an already think of some of the players that would be smart to start looking into it. As a bit of a Starbucks addict it would be good to know where the nearest branch is, hospitals, dentists, Police Stations would be another good use for the service.

Some years back a pilot was launched in Cambridge, UK that provided LBS service based on GSM cell sites for trinagulation. It was limited to a map for shopping and the limiting factor was the size of the screen on the handset. Many of those limitations are diminishing with big screen mobiles, PDA's and rotating screen orientation (such as the Nokia E60) make this a real choice in today's digital community.