According to ABI Research, there’s a good reason why Apple, eBay, Google, and others are all making definite moves on indoor location in 2013.
For starters, we’re looking at a $4 billion plus market by 2018.
ABI Research’s quarterly Location Technologies Market Data measures the uptake of indoor location technologies, mapping and new companies entering the space.
The overall market of technology installations is forecast to break the 25,000 mark in 2014, ABI says, while handsets capable of supporting indoor location will be in the hundreds of millions within two years. As a result, the major companies will start to make their moves.
“Apple’s new A7 co-processor coupled with the acquisition of WifiSLAM highlights indoor as a priority,” says Senior ABI analyst Patrick Connolly. “Both Apple and eBay have announced support for dedicated BLE beacons, a technology that is set for a huge 2014 as major IC and device OEMs make it widely available.”
“Google continues to expand on indoor mapping, and has openly discussed some of its indoor location plans at I/O,” Connolly adds. “On the Wi-Fi side, four major AP providers (Cisco, Motorola, Aruba, Ruckus) have now acquired a company in this space. It was also interesting to see Nokia retain its mapping and indoor capabilities, identifying it as a new area for future growth.”
