Although the implementation of the mobile Web and cell phones has been badly bungled, last night’s Mobile Monday event, focused on Location-Based Services (LBS) in San Francisco was proof that the mobile Web seems likely to succeed despite the cell phone vendors’ and carriers’ bumbling. Not only was attendance large (about 225 people), several of the speakers were from very large companies. Autodesk ($1.2B annual revenue) and Tele Atlas (€127M annual revenue) are both big players in the mapping business, and their presence helps to validate market potential, while the smaller firms that spoke, such as Bones in Motion, demonstrated the basis for innovation that the co-mingling of mobile technologies can provide.

Autodesk’s Chuck Cone outlined the company’s role in the mobile Web; that of infrastructure and foundation APIs. In addition to providing some of the carriers with back-end technology that enables them to calculate and transport location-based information (from mobile phones with aGPS receivers), they also have partnerships with most of the major carriers to provide mobile application developers with a BREW or J2ME API that is used to retrieve the mobile phone’s location. As is the case with Autodesk’s original AutoCAD developer program, there is no charge for the API or support of it. Autodesk is making its money from the carriers, usually by taking a part of the “dips”, as each GPS location fix is called. If you’re looking to get in on the ground floor of a new industry, now is the time to start trying out the capabilities that LBS will bring to mobile phones and other devices. Currently, the only mobile phone providers with good LBS services are those using CDMA (Sprint/Nextel and Verizon). Cingular and T-Mobile have apparently given up on network-based (TDOA) LBS (except for 911 calls), and will be rolling out aGPS services eventually.
Perhaps the coolest use for LBS I have seen recently was demonstrated by Bones in Motion’s Spencer Nassar. With a small team of just five people, they are developing a location logging tool designed for casual athletes. If you like to hike, bike, or run, their software will let you log your travels and transfer a log to your computer when done, so that you can keep track of your time and distance traveled, post images of your route (on street maps or topographic maps), and perform other analysis on your exercise routines.

Tele Atlas’s talk by was also interesting. Although this company is based in the Netherlands, it has acquired two major U.S.-based navigation companies since 2000–ETAK and GDT. The combination makes them one of the two major players in navigation systems (along with Chicago-based NAVTEQ).

I’ll be attending National Manufacturing Week in Chicago next month, to get the latest scoop on the manufacturing industry and related CAD software. Actually composed of eight shows—including the National Design and Engineering Show (NDES)—this event takes over the entire McCormic Place convention center.

Notably absent this year is Autodesk, but CAD vendors that will be exhibiting include Actify, 3D Systems, Adobe Systems, auto·des·sys, Cyco Software, PTC, SolidWorks, SURFCAM, UGS, and VX Corp.

Trying to sort through the list of vendors I’d be interested in visiting, and in fact, trying to get any details at all about the show, I’m struck by how slow and cumbersome show’s Web site is. This is the premiere manufacturing show for the U.S., and the fact that it isn’t a stellar example of ease-of-use, quality, and performance is an interesting comment on those same aspects of America’s manufacturing prowess and capability. The whole site is clearly database-driven, and quite slow. The exhibitor list is painful to navigate, since you can’t always select mutliple categories. I had to run a dozen different searches to compile a list of all the CAD vendors.

Barmy.