Conclusion

There are a few key elements that sat the bench during this one.

The UI's for these LBS apps have room for improvement. I have to type in my city and state and then the destination(business name, point of interest or address). This is a hassle when I'm already busy with one if not both hands, but what if I have the crappy, free phone that came with my 2-yr plan? Wouldn't it be nice if I could just speak where I wanted to go? And I don't mean like when I'm calling the bank or the airlines--completely segmented (just like the inputs for typing) and then misunderstood. I mean something that runs on a modern architecture and actually understands me when I say, "Directions to 123 Main Street, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma" or "Find closest Starbucks." I want to get the result I asked for and the associated directions/map.

And that is where a pretty big second issue comes into play, especially if I'm Joe LBS Provider. Yahoo! or Google provide a lot of that "find" capability today along with a map (on smart devices anyway) AND they have the resources to port that ability across the gazillion platforms and associated handsets, and they can tie in the advertising and the transparent marketing. Granted, some folks NEED the hand-holding of turn-by-turn direction capability, but I think way too many people can see the dot on the map that is them and the stick pin that is their destination, and connect the two.

The other element to this is discovery of the application--definitely where carriers today guard the entry to the garden, even if they want us to believe the walls are getting shorter. Case in point is TeleNav as part of Sprint's "everything plan." Perfect example of a ho-hum user experience that boasts room for improvement, but where usage shot up because it was part of the "monthly plan." The perception of free has a great way of lowering consumer expectations. At the same time, it definitely spurred many to try it who might not otherwise. I'd be curious to learn the 'stickiness' of the app now that it's part of the Prego ("it's in there") package?

LBS providers want to help with search, search providers want to own everything, and carriers are trying to guard their turf without becoming the dumb pipe. Hopefully, customers win.

My $0.02.