With free turn-by-turn navigation available on all major smartphone OS’, ABI Research is finding a combination of other application segments and advertising will help to sustain a healthy LBS market.

Of the emerging areas, the GPS-enabled health and fitness market continues to grow strongly with application downloads expected to break the 100m mark in 2012. Revenues currently remain low as companies move to a freemium model to build presence, but it is a sector that has huge potential, with fitness device partnerships expected in 2013. In the family tracking market, companies like life360 and Sprint have led the way, with total downloads in 2012 expected to reach 37 million. ABI Research also forecasts strong revenue growth in the enterprise sector, which is undergoing a second wave of growth, moving beyond fleet management.

Senior analyst Patrick Connolly said, “The advertising side of the LBS business remains a relatively small but growing part of overall revenues in 2012. The “search and discovery” vertical is gathering significant interest with approximately 70% of Yelp’s 2011 revenue coming from local advertising, 78 million monthly active users, and partnerships with Apple and Microsoft. However, attrition continues in this space with Poynt (previously targeting 40m users by the end of 2012) filing for bankruptcy.”

Practice director, Dominique Bonte said, “In the carrier navigation space, there is an increasing need to look at new applications, business models, and emerging regions as illustrated by the big names players; TeleNav, TCS, and Telmap. In Europe, where roaming is still a major issue for off-board solutions, companies like Appello have indicated that carriers still see navigation as a key feature for high-end users.”

This quarterly market database focuses on the regional carrier and application store LBS markets. The database includes subscriptions, downloads, and revenues for Navigation, Enterprise, Search & Discovery, Gaming & Outdoor Pursuits, Family tracking, Health/Medical, Lone, Worker and “Other”. These findings are part of ABI Research’s Location Enabled Services Research Service which includes Research Reports, Market Data, Insights, and Competitive Assessments.

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 70+ research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.