According to a ABI Research’s recent report, in 2007, North America generated 81% of the world’s Location Based Services (LBS) revenue. In 2013, that percentage will be just 32%. In the same period, Western and Eastern Europe’s combined LBS revenues will jump from just 5% to 31%. The Asia-Pacific region, meanwhile, will see a rise from a 2007 share of 11%, to 27%.

LBS’s slow uptake outside North America has had everything to do with the fact that unlike the CDMA phones so prevalent there, which have utilized GPS to comply with the United States’ E911 regulatory mandate, the GSM handsets owned by most users in Europe and Asia have not generally offered native GPS support. However with the broader proliferation of GPS-enabled GSM handsets in those other regions, and with the quickening rollout of 3G services worldwide, the opportunities for LBS service offerings will grow quickly.