Global Markets for Mobile Positioning Technology: Commercial, Military, Homeland Defense--Focus on the U.S. and Canada

Additional Information

INTRODUCTION

Beginning with the successful completion of the global positioning system (GPS) in the mid-1990s, other new technologies for determining the geographical coordinates of moving or fixed objects have been deployed or developed. This report refers to them collectively as mobile location technologies.

Mobile location technologies are able to locate points, objects or persons on or above the earth’s surface by calculating the distances from one or more (usually at least three) reference points. These can be satellites orbiting in space, ground radio stations, cell phone towers, wireless LAN access points, or RFID receivers.

Each type of technology has its advantages and limitations, depending on the specific application. While they are, to some extent, competitive with one another, each technology has applications for which it is especially well suited. Additional mobile location technologies are being developed, many of them involving a combination of two or more existing positioning technologies.

STUDY BACKGROUND

This report is an update of a BCC study published in 2007. In a market that is evolving almost day-to-day, this report identifies the latest applications and trends in the market for GPS and other mobile location technologies. It focuses on the impacts these new technologies will have on the global mobile location market.

Another feature of this report worth noting is its expanded coverage of markets outside the traditional markets of North America, Western Europe, and Japan. Much of the projected growth in the mobile location technologies market over the next 5 years is expected to take place in China, India, and other “nontraditional” markets, making more detailed analysis of these markets imperative.