uLocate's WHERE launches on Palm Pre

As of today, WHERE announced that it is live on the Palm Pre and is already the 5^th most popular application in the App Catalogue.

According to Pam Deziel, vice president, Developer Marketing, Palm, Inc. "WHERE is a best-in-class application that brings together local and social information in a compelling UI, and we believe that it will prove to be very popular with Pre users.”

On the Pre, WHERE has been able to weave its local and personal content into webOS’s linked contacts, layered calendars, multitasking, notifications and of course its GPS capabilities to deliver a seamless real-world experience. For example, users can see the nearest gas stations to their location ranked by price, find local movies and insert show times into their calendar, or find the nearest Starbuck's with Wi-Fi access.

You can find a shortened version of the press release below:

"WHERE®, the premier location-based application from uLocate Communications, is available on the new Palm® Pre™ phone via the on-device beta App Catalog. Running on the new Palm webOS™ mobile platform, Pre brings together your important information from where it resides – on your phone, at your work or on the web – into one logical view.⁽¹⁾

WHERE is the ultimate local application for mobile devices. It quickly helps put the people, places and things consumers are looking for at their fingertips. Local content available through WHERE includes everything from the weather, news, and restaurant reviews, to the cheapest gas, movie show times, and the ability to connect with other users on the WHERE Wall™.

Palm Pre is designed to make users’ lives easier by bringing them the people, events and information that they need all in one place. WHERE builds on this unique personalization to provide an exceptionally strong local and social experience to consumers.

”We are thrilled to expand our availability to Palm users with this new and innovative application for the highly anticipated Pre phone”, said Walt Doyle , CEO of uLocate. “Palm has done a great job with webOS, and has allowed us to integrate the features that our consumers love about WHERE with the functions of the device such as calendar and contacts. This integration has helped us deliver a very rich user experience.”

uLocate announces deal with Garmin for Buddy Beacon

BOSTON-In line with a trend that has been developing this year, uLocate (well-known for its WHERE platform) is the latest LBS company to announce a deal with a device manufacturer. Today, the company has released a note stating that they will integrate their Buddy Beacon application into Garmin's connected devices and their Mobile XT Platform.

The full press release is as follows:

" August 19, 2008—uLocate Communications, the world’s leading developer of location enabled applications, announces an agreement with Garmin to add friend-finding capabilities to select current and future Garmin GPS devices. The partnership leverages APIs on uLocate’s WHERE™ platform to enable Garmin users to easily find and connect with friends nearby through the leading friend finding network, Buddy Beacon.

“The team over at uLocate continues to drive innovation with their open WHERE platform, enabling the broadest set of location based applications across the largest distribution network in wireless,” said Jeff Rath, vice president, global head of technology research of Canaccord Adams. “This represents a powerful combination – the largest PND manufacturer and the dominant platform in the market bringing together the universe of location enabled connected devices.”

With access to WHERE’s Buddy Beacon network, Garmin customers will be able to connect with their friends, share their location and update their status across a variety of online social networking sites including Facebook. Unlike other friend-finding applications, WHERE’s Buddy Beacon operates seamlessly across multiple networks, making it possible to connect with friends regardless of phone or carrier.

“We are delighted to team up with Garmin and through our WHERE platform, provide their users with access to Buddy Beacon,” said Walt Doyle, CEO of uLocate Communications. “The partnership connects two leaders in their industries that are committed to offering customers new and exciting interfaces."

Expect other companies in the LBS scene to come out with further announcements in the coming months, as new distribution and monetization models come to the fore.

uLocate-Latest Press Release on N-Series integration

Boston, MA - April 29, 2008 -- Latest Press Release from uLocate re:N-series integration

"uLocate Communications, Inc. announced today that WHERE is now available to users of the Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia N95 and Nokia N82 devices. As a result, users of these advanced smartphones will be able to customize their device with WHERE to unleash the full potential of their device’s embedded GPS technology. For Nokia N81 users, a self-reported location version of WHERE has also been made available.

WHERE offers users access to over 60 unique location-based applications. These applications deliver content that is based on a user’s current location and include options for local search, weather, news, shopping, events and friend finding. Every application on WHERE allows users to click-to-call, get directions to, or see a map of their selection. Users can also send the location, with a map and directions, to their friends via SMS.

Some of the applications on WHERE are location based versions of content from popular brands. Want to find the cheapest gas available based on your current location? Then choose the Gas Buddy application on WHERE. Wondering where the best place to eat is? Use Yelp on WHERE to get restaurant reviews, directions and more. Hear that your favorite sports team is in town? Find tickets to the game with StubHub on WHERE.

WHERE also gives users access to Buddy Beacon, the world’s largest mobile friend finding community. Buddy Beacon uses GPS technology to let users connect with their friends, share their location and update their status across a number of online social networking sites including Facebook. With Buddy Beacon, users can see their nearby friends on a map and connect with them directly through the application.

WHERE is free to Nokia Nseries users and is easy to access, and install, through the Nokia Download store’s GPS / Location section. This means that with just a few clicks, Nseries users can gain access to the application and begin exploring the world around them, and finding what matters, with WHERE."

uLocate Update-Major Carrier Launch Announced

I talked about up-and-coming uLocate in a recent post, and how the company was positioned to grab a substantial chunk of the LBS market in the US.

They announced just yesterday the signing of a new carrier, AT&T, growing to six the number of US wireless operators adopting uLocate's WHERE GPS widget platform.

Dan Gilmartin, VP of Marketing at uLocate, enthused the following:

" ... We are excited about the ability to reach AT&Ts 60+ million consumers. This launch extends the reach for applications created and built on the WHERE platform and brings the total potential audience for the platform to 130 million consumers. This launch represents a significant milestone for our company and our content partners as WHERE has the ability to offer content owners the broadest distribution network and largest potential audience of any location based application platform."

uLocate's two-pronged strategy is clearly yielding fruits -not only is it succeeding in establishing an ample base amongst US mobile subscribers-but is also stimulating rollout of new BREW/J2ME -based GPS widgets by the developer community on its proprietary WHERE platform by investing in its own Developer Program.

Look out for its BuddyBeacon service, which is bound to be revamped soon to offer new possibilities by being fully integrated within the WHERE platform.

Location, Location, Location - the Ulocate Widget Platform, One to Watch #6

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, is excited about the future of Location-Based Services (LSB): "...location-based advertising will be a very good business and useful to the end user".

This was his comment at a panel discussion held at the WEF in Davos last week (see Andrew Grill's blog for his excellent post analysing the key messages of the session). Many share Schmidt's excitement about the prospects for LBS's, albeit few are clear as to exactly how and when these prospects will materialise.

One firm that could be positioned to benefit from growth in this area is Boston-based uLocate, owner of the 'Where' GPS widget platform, capable of automatically porting programs onto GPS-capable handsets and publishing them on US-based networks with access to millions of users.

uLocate is hoping for location-based widgets developed on their platform to experience the same kind of viral growth that Facebook experienced for some of its applications.Already a number of practical widgets have emerged, ranging from the 'Zipcar Car Sharing' widget allowing members to locate and view the nearest Zipcars on their mobile screen as well as instantly connect to Zipcar's reservation system to select a nearby vehicle, to the 'Nearbio' widget, enabling users to quickly find the closest biodiesel pumps.

In addition, uLocate also offers "BuddyBeacon", a geo-social networking service that is reminiscent of Plazes (but however lacks the geo-tracker functionality of Ipoki, for example).

If uLocate's platform takes off within the developer community, then we could see the company expanding outside of the US and take advantage of the popularity of its platform to access an ever-growing LBS market.Its partnership with Twitter to track users' whereabouts could also fuel growth for the company.And for a subscription fee of $3 a month, uLocate appears to be delivering value to its US-based end-users.

It already raised $11m im venture capital in May 2007 in an over-subscribed financing round, so access to funding could further power its dash to grab global market share in 2008.