Startup offers cell phone mapping service
November 14th, 2006 - Posted in OtherA Silicon Valley startup is announcing a new cell phone mapping service to let users know when their friends are nearby.
The so-called social mapping service by Palo Alto-based Loopt Inc. was to announce Tuesday it has teamed with Sprint Nextel Corp.’s Boost Mobile LLC, to launch the feature for the carrier’s youth-oriented Boost-branded phones.
The service is free through the end of 2006 and will be $2.99 a month next year, following a 30-day free trial.
Using the phones’ built-in GPS satellite technology, the Boost Loopt service could alert users whenever their friends are within a half-mile to 25 miles. The real-time tracking would only occur for those who have agreed to be located and had given the user their cell phone numbers.
At any given time, a person can temporarily cut out from being “spotted” by their friends as well.
Consenting buddies would show up as dots on a map with accompanying options to text-message or call the person, or send them photos. Participants could update their own location status as well, informing others with notes that they are, say, “getting lunch with Sam” or “in class,” similar to how people often communicate online through instant messaging or other social-networking sites.
The concept of social mapping is trying to penetrate the cell phone market now as a number of other companies are promoting location-based cell phone services that let parents track their children or businesses track their fleets.
Last week, a small cell phone provider named Helio LLC introduced a service that similarly tracks buddies’ locations.
But Sprint’s Boost has a larger subscriber base of more than 3.8 million customers — mostly all under the age of 25, giving Loopt co-founder and chief executive Sam Altman the target audience he thinks will most appreciate the modern-day technology of being always connected.
“Social behavior really centers around cell phones now, especially for people under 30,” said Altman, who left Stanford University as a sophomore last year to start Loopt.
One of the most common text messages passed along cell phone users is “where are u?” he said. “And that’s what we’re trying to answer.”