I believe that all mobile strategies will soon have a location component.  When that happens, “location” appended to “mobile” will become redundant, like saying an electric computer.

But we’re not there yet. In the meantime, I talk to a lot of people who want to develop differentiating location-based capabilities in their mobile strategy.  Many of those people find the array of names and sub-categories of technologies confusing.

In trying to explain the ecosystem one morning, I drew it out on the placemat at the University Cafe in Palo Alto (I know…typical!).  It seemed helpful so I redid it as a presentation.  I have subsequently shown it to several folks in the mobile and location world.  While it is simplistic, it is a good starting point to categorize the various players.  I added a few examples and caveats and posted it in Slideshare.  Continue reading Now that ought to clear it up… →

(Note: Originally published on 7/28/10 at http://marcprioleau.blogspot.com/)

I’ve been hearing about an underground discussion among the tech crowd called the Billie Ray Valentine Contest. I am not the originator of the contest but since it seems only to be passed on in the crowded hallways of tech conferences, I thought I’d explain it here.

Who is Billie Ray Valentine?

Continue reading The Billie Ray Valentine Contest →

Note: Originally published on 11/30/10 at http://marcprioleau.blogspot.com/)

Last week’s announcement that Steve Coast, the founder of OpenStreetMap, had been hired by Microsoft’s Bing Map group was the latest move in the high-stakes play to own and control the digital map, and the underlying location-based services. In four years, the industry has moved from the seemingly unbreakable duopoly of NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas to a place where most of the major players want to control their destiny through proprietary map data, or, failing that, an open, free data set.

Continue reading Got Maps? →