Location: Interview, Ramesh Sundararaman

We’ve been talking a lot about the condition of GPS and LBS. In the long-term, what phase are we in for the development of mobile LBS? What value do you think LBS applications bring to the mobile enterprise user?

Location based services are applications that offer certain services to the mobile user based on the knowledge about the location of the user.

With GPS as the enabling technology, LB services are targeted at end-consumers and enterprises. At a consumer level, the services could be to locate the nearest restaurant/office (C2B), receive targeted ads (B2C) or track a friend (C2C).

At Motorola EMB, we offer a portfolio of LBS solutions along with our partners to enterprises including governments. These solutions targeted at different verticals like transportation, retail supply chain, financial services, mobile sales & service force and public-safety enable enterprises to effectively track and manage their mobile resources including staff and other assets. Examples include mobile workforce management, fleet tracking, asset tracking & management, field service dispatching, and route optimization.

Through our solutions, we enable enterprises not only in reducing their operational costs, but also in increasing their revenue and improving upon the customer satisfaction.

What is the business model and the main challenge that Location Based industry is facing?

There are multiple players who ultimately determine the successful deployment of a LBS service. These include device (hardware) vendor, the software applications developer, the wireless service provider in that particular region and the enterprise where the solution is being deployed. A successful business model is one that meets the expectations of all these different players and it could be either of a one-time fee or pay-per-license or pay-per-request, etc.

What according to you are the major strengths and weaknesses for the location based services’ market in India? How would you comment on the potential and threats of India region as a market?

There has been a significant growth in India’s services sector – transportation, logistics, organized retail and associated supply chain, manufacturing, banking & finance, etc. With the workforce being mobile across these sectors, it is imperative that they have real-time access to contextual information.

With the widespread availability of wireless coverage (including GPRS/EDGE and CDMA 2000 1x for data access) and enterprises understanding the benefits of mobility, the future is very promising for the LBS industry in India.

The main challenges facing the industry in India are:

GIS information being rudimentary for places outside the metros and major cities
Nascent ecosystem with limited players focusing on wide gamut of possible applications and services
End-user diversity limiting access to solutions predominantly in English

What are your plans for Indian market in specific, in terms of services and products? Is there any specific strategy direction to deal with this region?

Motorola EMB has handheld mobile computers that are targeted at enterprise consumers. While Enterprise Digital Assistant (EDA) range of mobile computers is for the “grey-collar” (service) workers, the Industrial Mobile Computers (IMC) range is for the “blue-collar” (manufacturing) workers.

Motorola’s MC 35 is the entry-level, durable EDA with support for EDGE, embedded GPS and camera. For use in harsh environments, we offer the sophisticated and rugged MC 75 series of EDAs with support for HSDPA/EV-DO, embedded A-GPS, 2MP AF camera, touch screen with full VGA display and WM6.0 operating system.

Additionally, we also have GPS accessories that snap-on to our WWAN devices like the MC 70 series of EDAs and MC 90 series of IMCs.

To cater to the specific needs of the local enterprises in different parts of the world, through our award-wining PartnerSelect program, we enlist the support of, and go-to-market with reputed global & regional hardware and software partners. We have more than 9000 partners globally who develop hardware accessories and software applications for our devices.

In India too, we have partners with specific focus on developing applications for location based services to our enterprise clients.

In view of the growing demand, the existing players and rising number of choices for the end users, what is Motorola’s USP (unique selling point) to give edge to its products over others? Any latest technological updates you would like to share?

Motorola EMB is a leader in the enterprise mobility space, both globally and in India. In the rugged, mobile computing space, Motorola EMB is a clear leader with more than 38% market share (2007).

We offer a wide portfolio of rugged, handheld mobile computers – both EDAs and IMCs – that is unmatched within the enterprise mobility market place. We have sold over 1,000,000 units of MC 9000s and over 500,000 units of MC 3000s to enterprises spanning across multiple verticals and geographies. We recently launched the industry’s first 3.5G (HSDPA) capable mobile computer MC 75 (EDA) with A-GPS support and full VGA display.

We believe that our devices should result in lower total cost of ownership (TCO) to our customers. Keeping this in mind, we have adopted a:

Common architecture that provides “Stability” to our customers
Product life-cycle management approach towards the platform thereby ensuring “Availability” of platform over a long period
Common development environment with associated software development kit enabling “Portability” of existing applications

We also believe that enterprise class devices should be capable of remote management by the IT departments of the respective enterprises. To this effect, we have ensured that all our devices have in-built management software that allow the IT departments to remote monitor, diagnose, upgrade, lock or shutdown the devices.

We understand that after-sales service is critical to enterprises and we have set a new standard in service by rolling out an enhanced level of coverage from the first day of your hardware purchase. Our Service start with comprehensive coverage extends to normal wear and tear repair coverage to accidental breakage of cracked plastics, broken screens, keypads and more.

We believe in establishing long-term relationship with our partners and to this end our PartnerSelect program is carefully designed to meet the needs of the channel partners. This has not gone unnoticed and our PartnerSelect program has received the 5* partner program rating from VARBusiness, two years in a row.

What is the "next big thing" in mobile LBS? Where do you think the location and navigation based technology or industry is heading for? What is the vision of Motorola accordingly?

We believe that the mobile LBS industry is going to experience an explosive growth and this would be fuelled by the rapid growth of the mobile workforce and the need to increase workforce productivity.

From a technology stand-point, the key drivers would be the rollout of 3G cellular services in India and support for A-GPS in devices. A-GPS will the preferred over stand-alone GPS for zeroing-in on the location, as it offers benefits such as lower TTFF, improved sensitivity, longer battery life and smaller antenna.

Going forward, we believe that WWAN carriers and other 3rd party players in India will offer enticing location based services using 3G cellular and A-GPS.

At Motorola EMB, we strive to enable businesses to connect the right (location-specific) information with the right people and at the right time, regardless of location or circumstance. We believe that we are best positioned to capitalize on this exciting market place. All our WWAN products already have support for GPS/A-GPS (either embedded or snap-on) and our recently launched devices have support not just for 3G, but for 3.5G (HSDPA) as well.