Even though the LBS concept is still trying to finds its way, some already dropped it, as attested by this account from the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment tradeshow in San Francisco:

While location-based services are finding some applications with enterprises, they have failed in the consumer market.

"Finding a friend is fine maybe once," said J H Kah, global vice president at South Korea Telecom. "We do make a good revenue from it, but it's still a small portion [of our overall business]." Mahesh Prasad, president of Indian mobile operator Reliance, added: "There are no compelling applications for consumers. Find a friend is not what I call a compelling application for people to pay for." (...) The services are a typical example of businesses getting over excited about a technology while failing to look at the usage case for consumers, argued Graeme Ferguson, director of global content development at Vodafone.

Why do I blog this? yes the Vodafone's guy is so right: there used to be a technological frenziness; for that matter, the claim that " services are finding some applications with enterprises, they have failed in the consumer market" is utterly crazy: what's the need of having applications if there is no consumer market!??? This means that they implement services first and then they think about the market. How weird! And what is pitiful is putting LBS in the closet... Well like Timo's comment in my yesterday's post, I am still positive of LBS but they might be different from what we/they expected. Besides I like SK telecom statements about the "Where are the Other Mobile Buddies Around Town" thing: "Finding a friend is fine maybe once". Come on, let's keep exploring user scenarios and LBS usage!