Sprint to Offer 'Friend-Finding' on Phones
Posted on: Wednesday, 18 July 2007, 09:15 CDT
Building on the growing demand to use cell phones for more than talking, Sprint Nextel announced Tuesday that it will offer a "friend-finding" service that uses location-based technology.
Sprint, one of the nation's largest cell phone service providers, inked a deal with Mountain View's loopt, which first introduced its service last fall on Boost Mobile, a mobile service owned by Sprint. Loopt -- which is aimed at the 14- to 25-year-olds who most frequently use social-networking sites like MySpace -- allows users to create groups of friends on their phone and keep track of them using a combination of text messaging, pictures and the GPS technology embedded in many new cell phones.
The deal makes Sprint the first major carrier to launch a location-based service with social-networking elements -- although there are a handful of other mapping and GPS services used by a variety of carriers.
"This is a very interesting space to watch; we've seen with our research that these types of services are very popular among the younger demographic," Michael Gartenberg, wireless analyst with Jupiter Research.
Sprint reported that its data revenues -- those that don't depend on customers talking on the phone -- increased 44 percent year-over-year to nearly $1.2 billion in the first quarter. Even more, the number of Sprint customers using text messaging increased 23 percent in the past year.
Loopt signed up more than 100,000 users before beginning to charge a fee in January; since then, the company has declined to provide updated user numbers. The service will be available in the coming weeks on more than 25 Sprint and Nextel phones for $2.99 per month, plus standard data charges.
Reached Tuesday (by mobile phone, of course), loopt founder Sam Altman said his company has doubled its workforce to about 30 employees since fall to meet increased demand.
"Users have made it clear that this is what they want their phones to do -- location-based services," Altman said.
Altman, who left Stanford University's computer science program to start the company, said loopt is already talking to other major carriers and announcements should be coming soon.
Contact Sarah Jane Tribble at stribble@mercurynews.com or (408) 278-3499.
Source: San Jose Mercury News
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