More than a third of Russian consumers are interested in a smartphone-based navigation device - while nearly 63 per cent are willing to pay more than euro 4 per month for a vehicle tracking service based on a GPS-enabled smartphone.
These are among the findings of research by Frost & Sullivan which also showed that global positioning system (GPS)-enabled smartphone technology is gaining ground over traditional portable navigation devices (PND) in the Russian navigation and telematics market.

Worldwide consumer location-based services (LBS) subscribers and revenue are expected to more than double in 2009.
The growth is being driven by the higher availability of GPS-enabled phones, reduced prices and the appearance of application stores, according to Gartner.

The idea that it's not necessary to know someone's exact location for mobile social networking to work successfully might seem a little bizarre.
Yet Mobiluck's Patrick Lord believes just that. The marketing director for the Paris-based start-up insists a GPS-enabled smartphone isn't needed for location-based networking to succeed.

Demand for GPS-enabled mobile phones will slow in 2009 but will avoid the fall in shipments expected to affect handsets generally.
At least that's what ABI Research is predicting. It forecasts that feature-rich smartphones will post year-to-year unit growth through the current economic downturn.