From Galileo to Gigabucks

2005-12-29 08:03 | Permanent Link | Locative

Thanks Ed, for making me think so early in the morning. Ed's blog entry for today asks about how Galileo will make any money.

It all points to Google. Or Yahoo. Or Mircosoft. Or A9.

Perhaps one of them will invest in Galileo, offer targeted ads, and we won't have to worry about the money. Google, etc. will make their money from knowing where the consumers are. And as consumers we'll be literally voting with our feet. Imagine Google being able to substantiate that there really are 30 people waiting for tables at Chez Burger but the lines at Fred's Fries are short.

It's all over but the details. I search for "Fish & Chips" on my handheld device. Google tells me what's close, what's on the menu, and how crowded the places are. I pick one, go there and buy dinner. Google can easily prove that I showed up because of my search and their results. What's more, I'll won't pay full price for my dinner since I'll be collecting my reward for having used Google to get there.

If you think consumers won't go for this, the "search reward" is happening already. I signed up for the A9 Instant Reward program the minute I heard about it. I save 1.57% (π/2%) on all my Amazon purchases as a result.

Comments

2005-12-29 10:39 | Posted by Dave Smith | http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com

My understanding is that the Galileo business model is to be fee-based, with pricing tiers based on the level of positional accuracy desired. I'm not sure how that is to be reconciled with free NAVSTAR GPS and fee-based DGPS correction services, along with the GLONASS effort, which Putin wants to see be completed by 2008. Add to the mix an independent navigational satellite effort being launched by the UK for military use.

Galileo is already being discussed as being "interoperable" with NAVSTAR GPS, however it's unclear what that means- also different orbit height may have some different behavior with respect to satellite constellations and GDOP.

Currently Topcon has survey-grade GPS systems on the market that work with both NAVSTAR and GLONASS GPS, as they both are in a similar frequency range, but have different signals and require different processing... It will be interesting to see how things evolve.

But I'm not convinced by mere Galileo hype alone.

Comments are closed for this entry.