Other cell phone companies are starting to offer location-based services as manufacturers add GPS functionality to phones along with cameras, music and video players.
So far, commercial uses for GPS phones are outpacing consumer uses, largely because Nextel traditionally has focused on business customers. But cell phone companies expect consumers to buy into the concept, too, as more applications are developed and as the cost of phones and mapping services drops.
Sprint Nextel declined to say how much revenue it derives from location-based services, many of which are subscription-based services from third-party vendors. But Sprint Vision, the company's data service, accounts for less than 10 percent of the average revenue per customer.
A recent study by market-research firm TNS found that 40 percent of consumers rated the inclusion of GPS on cell phones among the features they desired most. It ranked behind long battery life, high-resolution cameras and popular software programs.
"All of these new applications seem to be only limited by the imaginations of people," said Mary Folz, director of location and mobility services forhas developed applications for trip planning and navigation used for recreation activities, such as hiking, boating, hunting, skiing and other off-road activities. The Sunnyvale, Calif., company also offers services used by contractors and fleet managers. Customers can use Trimble's Web site to research trips and download maps in advance. The GPS feature on their phones lets them track their progress, even if the phone is out of cell-tower range.
Geosnapper is among several services developed by uLocate of Framingham, Mass. The service stamps GPS coordinates on digital photos taken with camera phones. Users can share photos with geo-tags at the Geosnapper Web site, www.geosnapper.com.
Intransix, based in Mountain View, Calif., has developed several programs for monitoring and analyzing workouts that include running, walking, biking and other outdoor activities. It measures distance, speed, time and calories burned. The service also can produce a route map.
TeleNav Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., offers a variety of services, including turn-by-turn directions, location of nearby gasoline stations, hotels and restaurants, and directory searches to help find a business address and obtain a driving route.
Joe Averkamp, a senior director of business development at Sprint Nextel, said the company expects to introduce more services as developers bring them out. "There are so many applications that you can exploit beyond the ones we've launched."
The year-old Florida company allows parents to track their child's location on a computerized map, using Nextel phones equipped with GPS technology. The image shows speed and direction of travel.
So, if your son is going where he should be at a safe speed, there's no need to worry. But if your daughter is driving too fast or is in the wrong place, you can call and warn her to slow down.
The price: $19.99 a month, including a decal with a toll-free number that other drivers can call to report bad driving. Regular cell phone service charges are on top of that.
In a nutshell, the service is based on a "ping" each phone sends to the nearest cell tower. The ping is transmitted to a satellite, and the signal then bounces to a company that pinpoints the location, converts it to a street address and attaches a date and time. Parents can retrieve up to seven days of tracking information from the Teen Arrive Alive Web site.
A small container is hidden somewhere in tiny Barnickel Park in northern Webster Groves. More than three dozen people have found it - and hidden it again - in the last year.
They're geo-cachers, people who use geographic positioning system, GPS, devices to find containers hidden by others, using clues posted on Web sites. The hundreds of containers hidden in parks and other public places across the St. Louis area are among 200,429 active caches in 217 countries, according to www.geocaching.com, a Web site dedicated to the sport.
PC Miler - Provides navigation and tracking tailored for trucks. Gives directions, taking stock of restrictions on truck traffic and clearance heights. Includes spoken dock-to-dock directions as well as maps.
TeleNav - Gives audible and visual turn-by-turn driving directions, with automatic re-routing if you miss a turn. Can be used to find restaurants, gasoline stations, hotels and other businesses.
Trimble Outdoors - Provides maps, routes and points of interest for activities such as hiking, biking, hunting, boating and other outdoor sports. Links to a computer for use with Trimble's trip-planning software. Can add GPS tags to photos taken with a camera phone.
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