GPS firm sees more location-based services in phones

IDG News Service - SiRF Technology Holdings Inc. plans to release a software platform for phone operators later this year that it hopes will accelerate the use of location-based services in mobile phones, the company's president and CEO said.

SiRF sells chips and software for use in consumer Global Positioning System (GPS) products. It thinks 60% of mobile phones will include GPS capabilities in the next three years or so, but a key challenge is getting operators to offer location-based services to their subscribers, SiRF CEO Michael Canning said in an interview this week. Fewer than 10% of phones have GPS capabilities today, he estimated.

Location-based services had several false starts because the technology wasn't accurate enough and applications were poor, according to Canning. But he said interest is building this year from mobile operators that are looking for new ways to generate revenue.

To help drive the market, SiRF is creating a platform on which third-party developers can write applications for operators. The platform will not be dependent on a particular cellular technology and will work with Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and other standards, Canning said.

The San Jose-based company is also offering a developer environment called SiRFstudio, which includes application programming interfaces and tools. It also offers developers an online testing environment for precommercial trials.

The client applications available today are mainly for mobile phones with a lot of memory, said Ashu Pande, vice president of marketing for the wireless segment at SiRF. They include a child-locator, for helping parents keep track of their children. The application is being offered by SK Telecom Co. in Seoul, Korea, in a child's phone made by Bellwave Co., also in Seoul.

SiRF's strategy is to integrate other functions into its GPS chips that are often available in mobile devices but typically require separate chips. Last month, it introduced its SiRFLinkI chip, for example, which combines GPS and Bluetooth capabilities.

About a dozen radio technologies could potentially go into mobile phones, including FM broadcast, GPS, Wi-Fi and WiMax. The opportunity for SiRF is to incorporate these into its GPS chips, which would reduce power consumption and the cost of making phones, Canning said.

If the company wants to add capabilities like Wi-Fi and digital video to its chips, it would have to acquire companies with the technology, Canning said. "If it is a key thrust for you, you need to acquire, otherwise you find yourself in a cost model where licensing fees can be a nuisance," he said.

In December, SiRF acquired Impulsesoft Pvt., a Bluetooth embedded software company in Bangalore, India. It also bought Kisel Microelectronics AB last year, a Stockholm-based company that specialized in radio frequency circuit design.