Revenues from mobile location-based services (LBS) in the European market will grow by 34 percent annually to reach about $622 million in 2010, according to a new report from the research firm Berg Insight. Johan Fagerberg, senior analyst at Berg Insight, said that the market is picking up speed through successful launches of mobile personal navigation services and location based billing plans in several European countries.

“Nokia’s recent acquisition of Gate5 is an evident example of the importance mobile industry players attach to navigation”, said Johan. “We expect GPS-enabled handsets with preinstalled navigation software to become available from the leading brands on the European market very soon.” Berg Insight forecasts that navigation will account for 48 percent of mobile LBS revenues in 2010.

Johan also comments on the popularity of location based billing plans in Germany. “Over one third of O2’s customers in Germany have opted for the Genion service, which offers a discount tariff at their home location”, he said. “Vodafone and T-Mobile have followed and attracted 1 million and 700,000 customers respectively in a short time”. Through location based tariffs the users can receive discounts on both voice calls and mobile broadband data traffic at home and pay regular charges elsewhere. Berg Insight estimates that 18 million mobile users in Europe will subscribe to location based billing plans by 2010.

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