Beginning with the successful completion of the Global Positioning System (GPS) in the mid-1990s, other technologies for determining the geographical coordinates of moving or fixed objects have been deployed or developed. Collectively referred to as mobile location technologies, they are able to locate points, objects or persons on or above the earth's surface by calculating the distances from one or more (usually at least three) reference points. Examples include satellites orbiting in space, ground radio stations, cell phone towers, wireless LAN access points or RFID receivers.

According to a report (RG-291) generated by analyst Andrew McWilliams at Business Communications Company, Inc., “Global Mobile Positioning Applications: Commercial, Military, Homeland Defense,” the global market for mobile location technologies is projected to rise from $23 billion in 2005 to over $39 billion by 2010. At this rate, the average annual growth rate (AAGR) for this market is projected to be about 11.3%.

Each technology has its advantages and limitations. While they are, to some extent, competitive with one another, each has applications for which it is especially well suited. Additional mobile location technologies are being developed, many of them involving a combination of existing technologies. Vehicle navigation systems and telematics, the largest application segments in 2004 with more than 44% of the market, should be superseded before 2010 by people and animal tracking. The latter includes GPS and other location-aware mobile phone handsets and is expected to achieve sales of $15.6 billion or 46% of the mobile location market by 2010, according to BCC report. Surveying and mapping and mobile asset management are the other two largest applications and will represent 8% and 11.5%, respectively, by 2010, the study shows.

While it was the GPS satellite system that launched the mobile location market, today some 80% of all applications use either augmented GPS technologies such as the wide-area augmentation system (WAAS) or hybrid systems like wireless assisted-GPS (WA-GPS). Network-based systems such as enhanced observed time difference (EOTD) and wireless LAN (WLAN) technologies also account for a small but growing share of the market.

Complete or integrated GPS solutions (as opposed to discrete hardware and software components purchased separately by the user) increasingly dominate the mobile location market. Integrated solutions that accounted for an estimated 90% of the market are expected to increase their market share to 94% by 2010.

The United States is expected to retain its position as the world's largest market for mobile location technologies through 2010, predicts the report. Otherwise, Western Europe (i.e., the EU plus EFTA nations) should replace Japan as the second-largest geographical market. As a group, markets outside of the U.S., Western Europe and Japan are projected to increase their global market shares to 20% by 2010.

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