Comments on: Loopt Embraced by Verizon; Starts to Spread Its Mobile Wings

By: Here Come The New iPhone Apps

Here Come The New iPhone Apps — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 23:38:43 +0000

[...] on GPS and other location-tracking technologies. Loopt is already available on many Sprint and Verizon phones. With the iPhone, it will add AT&T to its [...]

By: chigdon

chigdon — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:25:38 +0000

Can we call it Web 3X instead of Web 3.0? Web 3.0 is just too obvious.

By: Sniff your friends location on Facebook

Sniff your friends location on Facebook — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:49:50 +0000

[...] not unlike what Loopt is [...]

By: Saurabh Kaushik

Saurabh Kaushik — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 04:20:49 +0000

“.. Why everybody is developing their Location Aware Applications? If I have to install 10 softwares on my mobile, I am sure all of them will be reading my GPS info constantly from mobile and sending to their respective servers. First of all, it is sheer wastage of processing power of my tiny mobile and also the bandwidth (because applications may use their own protocol to transmit Location Coordinate) . It can be easily done if HTTP request has this parameter for Location Coordinate…”
http://www.nanosaka.com

By: amay

amay — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 04:08:00 +0000

Next Year will be the Year of Mobile Internet

By: amay

amay — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 02:36:16 +0000

Can’t see how today would be much different, unless it became part of a larger social project.

By: Robin Chan

Robin Chan — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:58:30 +0000

Congratulations, Sam Altman and the Loopt team!

By: ES

ES — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:20:46 +0000

Location Based services are the future but the problem with this service is the a $4 fee, read the review about it: in itsnearme.com

By: alan p

alan p — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:41:24 +0000

Sadly, Location based services have been the Next Big Thing in mobile for as long as “Next Year will be the Year of Mobile Internet” has been around. More thoughts here

http://broadstu...islocation.html

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:56:26 +0000

GPS Guy–

Sprint has pushed GPS services more agressively, but VZ has the most aGPS handset in consumer’s hands.

By: WIRELESS « Daily Marauder

WIRELESS « Daily Marauder — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:38:03 +0000

[...] It’s a big win for Loopt since Verizon has more location-aware handsets than any other carrier. (http://www.tech...read-its-wings/ [...]

By: jsmillandfriends

jsmillandfriends — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:32:32 +0000

I’m surprised ULocate is still around. I remember seeing Gen. Tommy Franks on TV in Nov 2004 pitching ‘Teens Arrive Alive’. Nice marketing ploy to get parents to keep tabs on their kids’ locations but I don’t think it worked. I was in Shanghai at the time working with a Chinese location services provider listed on the NASDAQ. They ran a good strategy providing services to TNCs salesforces but ended up in the pink sheets a couple of years ago. Tough market.

By: fortunecookienotes

fortunecookienotes — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 21:10:34 +0000

Combine this with the likes of twitter, and you’ll have a pretty cool mobile social networking app!

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:13:30 +0000

Didn’t AT&T try to offer a similar service 5 years ago? It was withdrawn for poor demand and concerns about user privacy. Can’t see how today would be much different, unless it became part of a larger social project.

By: GPS GUY

GPS GUY — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:12:20 +0000

How can you make such a broad claim? “It’s a big win for Loopt since Verizon has more location-aware handsets than any other carrier.” This is totally false. Sprint is the leader in and Nextel has been the leader for years. V hardly even understands location. How can you make such a broad claim? March 5, Frost & Sullivan, presented Sprint with two 2008 Mobility Awards for location-based-services. This is the third year in a row for Sprint Nextel. http://newsrele...&ID=1115704 – Can we keep the broad claims to factual statements?

By: What a Joke

What a Joke — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:37:29 +0000

Ok, this is what will happen…..

All these start ups will knock themselves out trying to provide some kind of really cool service.

They will run out of funding, since they really don’t make any real revenue and the VCs who backed them are mostly idiots with very little skin in the game.

Verizon will still be in business next year and will capture the $4/month/user.

Google’s Android will flop and Google investors will begin to realize that Google doesn’t have a second act. Little text ads was all they got and that business is slowing.

Tech Crunch readers will move on to reading about really, really, really cool Web3.0 apps.

By: Web20Guy

Web20Guy — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:58:26 +0000

@FakeSamAltman – you missed the point. It’s about NOT playing to the walled garden strategy.

By: FakeSamAltman

FakeSamAltman — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:22:19 +0000

You guys all act like Loopt is incapable of writing a free iPhone or Android version that plugs into Facebook and MySpace.

By: Web20Guy

Web20Guy — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:14:40 +0000

I read somewhere “location tracking” with a monthly subscription model wasn’t sticky in Asia and Europe. Disney abandoned Loopt. I wonder what will make Verizon sticky. This is very expansive for Loopt (a startup) to educate Verizon customers, not to mention the $ Loopt already spent to pursue the deal, integration and testing. I guess @Sundar and @Raskin on the right track. Yet another Mobile 1.0 play by the “walled garden” carriers. I bet you Verizon has not spent a dime on this deal. Like most, Mobile 1.0 deal, Loopt will has to advertise to acquire customers.

Once the consumers are educated, the free solution will be available on Android/iPhone. Even without GPS or AGPS, a developer can easily get the lat/lon from FireEagle (Yahoo) to do what they do for free. Fon11 already has location sharing on iPhone plus a lot more. I think they are working on iPhone SDK version and other native apps.

By: TommyBoy

TommyBoy — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:43:11 +0000

@DaveS, What you dont seem to understand is that BREW (which Mark seems to think is great) is a proprietary OS, and Verizon doesn’t just let anyone add whatever they want to their phone. My guess is Loopt is not the one mandating payment here, it is Verizon.

By: Sundar

Sundar — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:29:39 +0000

@Raskin: Mobile 1.0 products aren’t!

By: DaveS

DaveS — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:28:25 +0000

They’ll be killed once Android/iPhone SDK apps stat coming out…. facebook, mysapce etc will have apps like that… for free!

By: Raskin

Raskin — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:02:50 +0000

$4/mo! I thought web 2.0 products were free!

By: andrian

andrian — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:48:14 +0000

http://www.geoc...ties.com/poi243

By: Jof Arnold

Jof Arnold — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:44:43 +0000

Their founder is a long-running Paul Graham anecdote on the subject of “hard-working”! Sounds like a cool guy, and Loopt is panning-out to be a pretty awesome company. Good luck!