PocketFinder App a Hit, LBAS Shares Gaining Momentum
LBAS (one-month chart to right) shares are up more than 30% since our 12/23/08 newsletter coverage on the company.
We could see a move higher over the next few trading sessions as the street digests news that the company’s PocketFinder service is off to a great start.
The application has been downloaded more than 10,000 times by Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android Smartphone users.
For those of you that are unfamiliar with LBAS, the company is an emerging developer of personal location devices.
The business model here is ingenious: Rather than expending an exorbitant amount of resources to make their asset tracking hardware a household name, the company is making the application software that goes into to each PocketFinder unit available to the more than 7 million Apple and Google smartphone users worldwide.
Apparently, the strategy is working out well, with 10,000 downloads in just 8 weeks of availability and stellar reviews from a number of online media portals.
The Red Hot Market for iPhone Apps:
A recent BusinessWeek article entitled “Theres Gold In Them iPhones” takes a look at just how profitable the market for smartphone applications is today. The piece is definitely worth a read.
In my opinion, if a “virtual lighter” application fares well in the world of iPhone users, just think about the traction that a useful program such as PocketFinder could gain with the right amount of exposure.
If, as the article points out, “Some kid in his bedroom can literally make a million bucks just by writing a little app,” just think about the sales potential of an application such as PocketFinder written by world class programmers that meets the needs of a population of more than 42 million mobile users.
And the potential appears to be growing quickly, with research firm Gartner Inc. forecasting that there will be 300 million subscribers to location-based communications systems on mobile devices by 2011 when related revenues are worth nearly $8 billion.
Steve Jobs is Amazed. Now We’re Talking!
As I’ve mentioned in previous editions, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has stated that the market for iPhone application software has already surpassed $500 million in sales and will someday be worth $1 billion. In reference to the phenomenon, he has also been quoted as saying “We’ve never seen anything like this in our careers,”
And the iPhone represents only a fraction of the total GPS-enabled handset market that could potentially utilize the PocketFinder application. This market is forecasted by Berg Insight to grow at a CAGR of 26% from 2007 to 2012 when there are 560 million units in use worldwide.
LBAS: Just Scratching The Surface
The market for smartphone application software holds a tremendous amount of potential for future growth and Location Based Technologies (OTCBB: LBAS) is just scratching the surface with its PocketFinder service.
With 2009 just under way, and the PocketFinder application getting a warm initial reception from smartphone users, we like what we’re seeing from LBAS thus far and think the company is very well-positioned for growth going forward. Check back soon for updated coverage on the company and the penetration of both its hardware and software offerings.
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