Mobile Phones and PDAs

Location Based Awareness means access to information anywhere, any time. Today’s mobile devices are more and more making that a reality. The lines are becoming blurred as to what is a phone and what is a PDA.

Some of the newest Smartphones running Windows Mobile are able to interact with the standard SmartFIND enabled websites on their browsers without requiring any software at all. This means that people can find you and your products and services with ease.

We also offer solutions for more proprietary devices. If you want maps on your Palm or Pocket PC based device, we supply maps for the popular HandMap application and you can download and try them from www.handmap.net . HandMap supports GPS but you can use it without.

If you have a Vodafone Live capable phone, you can access SmartFIND anywhere, any time and locate pretty much anything you need to know about. Get maps and directions when you need them most.

We supply mapping data to the leading portable navigation suppliers such as Navman and Siemens VDO. We welcome interest from new entrants to the New Zealand market.

New Developments

The NZ telecommunications companies will soon enable web to MMS technology. This means that people will be able to send maps and directions or other information straight to a mobile phone from a website. This has huge implications and adds an exciting new dimension to mobile technology. Our web developer, advertising and marketing partners are developing ideas to take advantage of this next dimension.

Some areas where this new technology could be used include:

  • For maps and directions, instead of printing them off on paper, send them to your mobile phone.
  • Opt-in marketing and campaigns. For example, someone who is a member of the Wine Lovers Club gets a MMS message with directions to a wine bar running a promotion, complete with an electronic coupon for a 2 for 1 deal.
  • You are lost on your way to a motel. You call them on the phone and they MMS directions and a map to you from their web site. The directions are from the exact location you called the from.
  • You are a service engineer and you get a map and directions sent to your phone from the call centre for your next job.
  • A mainstreet organisation runs a campaign that involves visiting specific locations in a treasure hunt game, where maps and directional clues are sent to your phone.
  • Members of a rugby club get sent MMS messages with directions from their home addresses to the away game location.

GPS Enabled phones

While they have yet to be enabled, most mobile phones being manufactured today include a GPS chip. One of the reasons is legislation in countries like the USA, where legislation is being introduced requiring the ability to locate mobile phones which initiate 911 emergency calls.

This will open up a raft of new opportunities and GeoSmart will be facilitating them with our mapping databases. These opportunities include:

  • Locating children or other people, subject to opt-in or approvals of course. This could assist in locating elderly or sick people, people overdue from outings etc.
  • Locating friends or community members. You could be notified if friends, associates or people belonging to membership groups are in your vicinity.
  • Mobile Marketing. You could belong to opt-in marketing groups and be notified when you are in the vicinity of a supplier with whom you have registered. This could be a fashion outlet with a new line you have expressed an interest in, a chain running a new promotion, a happy hour, a movie theatre promoting spare seats for a discount etc.
  • Spatial Games. Treasure Hunts and even Pac Man style games are being developed which take advantage of knowing where a mobile is, in relation to other people or tasks within a game or promotion.
  • Find nearest. With current technologies such as Vodafone Live, you still have to tell the phone where you are in order to find your nearest search locations. With built in GPS, the system already knows where you are.