As the hipsters descended on Austin, Texas last weekend for South by Southwest (the event, by the way, that “made” Twitter a few years ago, much attention turned to location-based services. By some reports, more than a dozen new location-based-style services are launching at the show. Are location-based services the next big thing in mobile?
Today, Gigaom writes about the idea of this year’s SXSW as the ground zero for the coming “geowars”:
For some odd reason, people believe that SXSW is going to be a full-blown coming-out party for location-based services that will launch at least one of them into the stratosphere.
Ever since Twitter made such a big splash in Austin a few years ago, many startups have come to believe that if they can do the same, they will subsequently become an overnight success — a foolish assumption. It took a lot longer than that for Twitter to go from an early-stage curiosity to a mainstream phenomenon.
The Connected Planet Take, Sarah Reedy:
I was amongst the 500,000 users that signed up for Foursquare after its rise to fame following last year’s SXSW. Three badges and only six friends later, however, the service has lost its appeal to me – but I’m in the minority. It’s easy to tell from this week’s show in Austin that location is quickly becoming the next battleground for wireless. It is too early to cede the battle to any particular app developer (although many are doing so), but it appears Foursquare and its biggest competitor Gowalla are taking the lead. With location APIs opening up and data easy to get a hold of, it is an easy market to enter, but a tough one to compete successfully in. The location-based app that ultimately comes out ahead will be the one that finds a solid business model and a way to keep users engaged even when the novelty of being a virtual mayor wares off.
That’s our take on the coming geowars, let us know what you think in the comments below:
Having actively kicked the tires on Foursquare and Gowalla, both have pros and cons. There seems to be a bigger following on Foursquare so that\\\’s nice when you want to meet up with friends when you\\\’re out and about but Gowalla has added a new layer of interactivity with photo uploads – that\\\’s nice for checking venues out before you arrive, finding places to park, etc. I\\\’m also partial to Gowalla\\\’s UI and overall design – it\\\’s fun to look at the icons for each stop.
But…having just come from SXSW yesterday and hearing Evan\\\’s session on Twitter, I\\\’m not sure how all these location-based services can play nicely together. Once Twitter is firmly in that business, there\\\’s no need for folks like myself to use any similar service.
I will jump ship if the ads get too intrusive, though. I\\\’m not looking forward to a Minority Report-like stream of ads hitting my mobile device based on where I am or where I\\\’ve been.
Deven Nongbri
@dnongbri