About This Book

Despite the fact that location-based services have been around in some shape or form for almost a decade, both the complexity of and rapid advances in the technology have created barriers to a general understanding of how these services work. The first aim of this book is to break through these barriers and provide you, the reader, with clear yet concise information of the elements of LBS—from positioning methods to mapping options, and from mobile development platforms to content layers.

LBS is set to revolutionize the mobile landscape and shape the very core of what is defined today as Mobile 2.0, or a participative Mobile Web environment (equivalent to Web 2.0). The second aim of the book is to offer first-time LBS developers or web programmers new to mobile applications insight into the wealth of ideas and possibilities for developing the next killer application within LBS. We’ll take you through the building blocks of a typical LBS service and share with you the hindsight that will allow you to avoid some of the more common pitfalls (keep an eye out for the Tips sections throughout the book!).

The third and final aim of the book recognizes that application developers are increasingly also entrepreneurs. They have a real desire to combine their passion for development with the ability to create a financially rewarding business enterprise. As with most newly launched web or mobile services, monetization plays a big role in making any new venture a success. For this reason, we examine different options for financing and building your business as well as how to make your application rise above the rest in the competitive world of mobile applications.

Who is this book for?

The core of this book is written in layman’s terms to allow the newcomer to the world of mobile services to obtain a rapid grasp of the essentials required to develop, build, and distribute a successful LBS. It is not an engineering manual or a deep theoretical study of location technologies—if you like reading about azimuth tabulations and receiver calibrations we recommend you step away now. This book dives into programming detail and code only at specific points to give mobile application developers the practical tools to kick off their LBS project or include specific add-on features to their existing projects.

This book is for you if

• You are a web programmer and want to learn more about developing mobile LBS applications.
• You are a senior manager, CIO, or CTO working in the mobile industry and want to learn more about this dynamic area of mobile development.
• You are an entrepreneur and want to explore how to make money from LBS.
• You are a mobile programmer new to LBS and want a good overview of all the options available.
• You have a passion for mobile internet (maybe you also have a Wired magazine subscription) and want to learn more about how LBS is revolutionizing the mobile industry.

How this book is organized

This book has two main flavors: a technology one and a business one.

We have taken the original approach for a technology manual of blending these two flavors together in the book. This way you can flow from an overview of LBS at the start, to a look at development building blocks in the middle, and on to mobile business strategy at the end.

To make it easier for you to navigate through the book (no pun intended) and be consistent with the aims of the book set out previously, we’ve structured it in three parts:

Part 1 gives you the big picture of LBS and the technology that’s enabling the widespread adoption of location-aware apps and services.

Part 2 is a thorough overview of how to put LBS into practice on mobile—which platforms to choose and why, and how to build successfully on these. We’ve added a whole chapter on current consumer applications in this section to let readers relate the practical tools to real apps developed with these tools.

Part 3, the final section, is about the business side of LBS mobile app development that will increase your chances of having a widely adopted, successful, and profitable development effort.

Depending on your interest, you can pick out the chapters you like best and start with those. Whatever your bias, try at least to skim through chapters 1, 3, 4, and 5, because these will give you a good overview of LBS both in theory and in practice.

Code conventions and downloads

This book has code examples in many different programming languages, such as Java, Objective-C, PHP, HTML, and JavaScript. We’ve followed the most common practices for each language, so it should be fairly obvious while you’re trying out these code examples on your own.

In general we’ve followed these rules for syntax and variable naming:

• Package names are all lowercase letters.
• Class names start with a capital letter, with the embedded word capitalized.
• Variables start with a lowercase letter, with the embedded word capitalized.
• Each line should contain at most one statement.

All source code in listings is set off from the text is in a fixed-width font like this to separate it from ordinary text. Code annotations accompany many of the listings, highlighting important concepts. In some cases, numbered bullets link to explanations that follow the listing.

The code for the examples in this book can be downloaded from the publisher’s website at www.manning.com/Location-AwareApplications.

Author Online

The purchase of Location-Aware Applications includes free access to a private forum run by Manning Publications where you can make comments about the book, ask technical questions, and receive help from the authors and other users. You can access and subscribe to the forum at www.manning.com/Location-AwareApplications. This page provides information on how to get on the forum once you’re registered, what kind of help is available, and the rules of conduct in the forum.

Manning’s commitment to our readers is to provide a venue where a meaningful dialogue between individual readers and between readers and the authors can take place. It isn’t a commitment to any specific amount of participation on the part of the authors, whose contributions to the book’s forum remain voluntary (and unpaid). We suggest you try asking the authors some challenging questions, lest their interest stray!

The Author Online forum and the archives of previous discussions will be accessible from the publisher’s website as long as the book is in print.