Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 15 November 2006 06:52
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
Boost Mobile and loopt in the US have launched a cellphone based social networking service that enables users to plot the location of their friends on a map on their cellphone. Optus launched a similar service in Australia a few months ago, but this one takes the functionality to a whole new level.
The Boost Mobile service enables young mobile phone users to share their location, status messages, photos and other on-the-go experiences with friends from their Boost Mobile phone. Boost Mobile claims that, unlike other social location services, Boost loopt, available to all Boost users on November 20, "automatically updates the location of everyone in a private network of Boost customers and displays that information directly on a map on the phone. Boost loopt even sends an alert when a friend in the network is near, putting an end to missed connections in the mall, at the movies or around town."
Boost Mobile is offering Boost loopt to its customers with java-enabled handsets for free through the remainder of 2006. Starting January 2007, Boost loopt will be offered on a pay-as-you-go basis for $US2.99 per month with the first 30 days free. From November 20, Boost customers can Boost loopt onto their Java-enabled Boost Mobile phone.
The Optus service, Friend FindA, started with a price of 55 cents per friend location (what a dumb idea that was), or $4.95 per month (that is now unlimited subject to fair usage, but was originally for 100 requests). However the Optus service offers little more than enabling users to find friends, or see who has been trying to find them.
Boostloopt on the other hand comes with a gamut of 'socialising' features including, tagging and sharing favourite places, accepting invitation and managing your social calendar, making available a profile which you can update with our current activity, automatically receiving alerts when friends are nearby.
As Craig Thole, director of value added services, Boost Mobile, noted: "Fourteen to 25-year-olds are committed to their social circles and constantly want to know where their friends are at."
Seems to me there'd be a good market for this in Australia, so I would expect Optus does not upgrade is service, and/or at least one of the other carriers to come up with something. However it is also possible that users get disillusioned because the service does not perform as they expect.
There's lots of information at the loopt website, http://www.loopt.com but there is one thing it does not tell you amongst all the pretty pictures of peoples' locations pinpointed at street intersections on maps: How accurate is it really?
