Skyhook Wireless Brings Wi-Fi Location to Symbian OS
Leaders in Smartphone technology today demonstrate Wi-Fi positioning at the Symbian Smartphone Show 2008
BOSTON, MA - Skyhook Wireless, provider of the Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) and the XPS Hybrid Location System, and Symbian Limited, the market leader in open operating systems for mobile phones, are today demonstrating Wi-Fi positioning on the latest version of Symbian OSTM, v9.5. The groundbreaking collaborative work between the two partner companies demonstrates support for Skyhook's Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) by Symbian's LBS architecture, enabling fast and accurate location acquisition in urban and indoor environments. A demonstration of this technology is being showcased on the Symbian stand at the Symbian Smartphone Show on October 21-22 in London.
In addition to the increased adoption of cell phone based vehicle navigation, there has been an explosion of new and interesting location based services in recent months. Some of these new services include pedestrian navigation, local search and advertising, friend finding, social networking, local events and geo-tagging of photos. These new applications require location technology that works everywhere. "Because rural areas and highways are not the most lucrative markets for location based services, handsets that combine Skyhook's Wi-Fi location with other location technologies to ensure functionality in metro areas and indoors will generate the largest revenue," said Patrick Connolly, research director at IMS Research.
In order for location based services (LBS) to continue its accelerated growth trajectory, location sensing technology has to be "consumer grade," and must quickly and accurately provide location information in the places where these applications are used. While existing mobile location technology such as A-GPS and cellular triangulation are an important part of the solution, these technologies have accuracy and availability issues indoors and in urban environments. The Wi-Fi Positioning System can be easily integrated with Symbian's LBS architecture to address these issues and to optimize location accuracy, coverage, and time to fix across all environments.
"Skyhook's Wi-Fi Positioning System is a good illustration of the diverse location acquisition support of our LBS architecture," said Mike Whittingham, VP ecosystem development, Symbian. "It's an innovative solution that will enable the future revenue opportunities of location-based services."
"Symbian is the leading provider of smartphone operating systems, and this collaboration represents an important milestone for Skyhook Wireless," said Mike Shean, vice president of business development for Skyhook Wireless. "This demonstration shows how Wi-Fi-based positioning can be used by Symbian OS-based devices to enable many innovative and location aware applications."
About Skyhook Wireless
Founded in 2003, Skyhook Wireless has pioneered the development of the first-ever metro-area positioning system that leverages Wi-Fi rather than satellites or cell towers to deliver precise location data supporting the growing market for location-based services. The Skyhook Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) requires no new hardware, works indoors and outdoors, provides an instant location and is more accurate than current technologies in congested downtown areas. WPS serves over 70% of the US & Canadian populations and is expanding internationally. Skyhook Wireless is headquartered in Boston, MA, and is privately held. Investors include RRE Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Intel Capital and CommonAngels. For more information visit www.skyhookwireless.com, send email to info@skyhookwireless.com or call 617-314-9802.
BOSTON, MA - Skyhook Wireless, provider of the Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) and the XPS Hybrid Location System, and Symbian Limited, the market leader in open operating systems for mobile phones, are today demonstrating Wi-Fi positioning on the latest version of Symbian OSTM, v9.5. The groundbreaking collaborative work between the two partner companies demonstrates support for Skyhook's Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) by Symbian's LBS architecture, enabling fast and accurate location acquisition in urban and indoor environments. A demonstration of this technology is being showcased on the Symbian stand at the Symbian Smartphone Show on October 21-22 in London.
In addition to the increased adoption of cell phone based vehicle navigation, there has been an explosion of new and interesting location based services in recent months. Some of these new services include pedestrian navigation, local search and advertising, friend finding, social networking, local events and geo-tagging of photos. These new applications require location technology that works everywhere. "Because rural areas and highways are not the most lucrative markets for location based services, handsets that combine Skyhook's Wi-Fi location with other location technologies to ensure functionality in metro areas and indoors will generate the largest revenue," said Patrick Connolly, research director at IMS Research.
In order for location based services (LBS) to continue its accelerated growth trajectory, location sensing technology has to be "consumer grade," and must quickly and accurately provide location information in the places where these applications are used. While existing mobile location technology such as A-GPS and cellular triangulation are an important part of the solution, these technologies have accuracy and availability issues indoors and in urban environments. The Wi-Fi Positioning System can be easily integrated with Symbian's LBS architecture to address these issues and to optimize location accuracy, coverage, and time to fix across all environments.
"Skyhook's Wi-Fi Positioning System is a good illustration of the diverse location acquisition support of our LBS architecture," said Mike Whittingham, VP ecosystem development, Symbian. "It's an innovative solution that will enable the future revenue opportunities of location-based services."
"Symbian is the leading provider of smartphone operating systems, and this collaboration represents an important milestone for Skyhook Wireless," said Mike Shean, vice president of business development for Skyhook Wireless. "This demonstration shows how Wi-Fi-based positioning can be used by Symbian OS-based devices to enable many innovative and location aware applications."
About Skyhook Wireless
Founded in 2003, Skyhook Wireless has pioneered the development of the first-ever metro-area positioning system that leverages Wi-Fi rather than satellites or cell towers to deliver precise location data supporting the growing market for location-based services. The Skyhook Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) requires no new hardware, works indoors and outdoors, provides an instant location and is more accurate than current technologies in congested downtown areas. WPS serves over 70% of the US & Canadian populations and is expanding internationally. Skyhook Wireless is headquartered in Boston, MA, and is privately held. Investors include RRE Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Intel Capital and CommonAngels. For more information visit www.skyhookwireless.com, send email to info@skyhookwireless.com or call 617-314-9802.
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