Sprint Wins Frost & Sullivan GPS Award

Sprint today was awarded the Frost & Sullivan 2008 Award for Market Leadership in the Consumer LBS Market “for its innovative open approach to developing GPS applications for mobile phones”. As we all known cell phone manufacturers and carriers are really hot these days on GPS functionality in phones. It’s such a hot market that GPS manufacturer Garmin is now making their own cell phones with Garmin GPS technology built-in. I do like the idea of having GPS functionality available in my cell phone. However, I think the technology has a little ways to go until I would use GPS functionality in my phone over a traditional GPS device. I would be interested to know how many people use the GPS functionality in their cell phone and how it compares to a traditional GPS device?

In case you weren’t aware of the different ways cell phone manufacturers and carriers are using GPS technology here is a list of how Sprint users can use GPS functionalities:

Sprint Navigation, which provides GPS-enabled, turn-by-turn driving directions with 3D moving maps, one-click traffic rerouting and more than 10 million local listings. Sprint Navigation received a 2008 Mobility Award from Frost & Sullivan.

Sprint Family Locator, which enables a parent to use their phone or PC to find the location of a family member, which is displayed on a map along with the address, surrounding landmarks and accuracy of the information within a specified radius. Convenient Safety Checks^SM can be set up so parents receive automatic email or text alerts of a loved one’s location at a specific time and place.

Google Maps™ for mobile, which allows users to view maps and satellite imagery, find local businesses, get driving directions and view real-time traffic information on the go.

Loopt, a GPS-based social mapping service that lets cell phone users share their location with friends, along with status messages and geo-tagged photos.

Slifter, which allows Sprint customers to search and find products at nearby local retailers, see price and availability information, and get directions to the store.

WHERE, an application that helps users connect with the world around them: find friends nearby, discover restaurants and events with reviews, locate cheap gas, and much more.