Sprint MVNO Boost Mobile has already signed up 40,000 customers during the two-month trial period of its location-based friend finder. The service makes use of satellite technology and software from LBS start-up, loopt. Much like a service just launched by Helio, Boost's LBS offering displays the user's friend's location on a map on their cell phone screen. One differentiating factor for Boost is that its service maps even those friends that are not Boost subscribers, while Helio only shows you friends that are Helio subscribers.
Boost and loopt will launch the service on November 20th, and plan to keep the 30-day free trial period through 2007. loopt's 21-year-old CEO says the company has enough funding ($5 million from Sequoia) to last through 2008, but it hopes to turn a profit by next year.
For more on Boost, loopt:
- check out this article at playfuls.com