StratVantage Consulting, LLC — Mike’s Take on the News 10/31/00

Vicinity and Phone.com Announce Location Based Services

Well, the future’s coming faster than I had imagined. This month, Vicinity, a vendor of location-based information, and Phone.com, maker of the most popular WAP browser as well as other wireless applications, announced Vicinity’s BrandFinder. BrandFinder is a Web and wireless application that gives users the ability to search nearly 300 of their favorite brands and locate the retailers and service providers nearest to them. While the major wireless providers fight the future and grumble about complying with the FCC’s E911 regulation (which requires them to locate a cell phone within 30 to 50 meters by next year), these two vendors are making it real now. Imagine all the brand owners who will hustle to get on Vicinity’s list. You gotta figure existing Vicinity customers such as FedEx, Ford, GM, Hilton Hotels Corporation, Marriott, McDonald’s, NEC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Starwood Hotels, Taco Bell, Toyota, Levi Strauss & Co. and UPS will have the leg up.

Phone.com

Airflash Teams with Excite and Orange on Location-Based Services

Even more progress on the Personal Area Network front. This announcement doesn’t detail exactly how the network will determine proximity. I suspect the user will somehow input his or her location. Still, the future’s coming fast.

Airflash