High Time for Real Time Solutions With Mobility Integrators, Says Frost & Sullivan

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Mar 03, 2010, 09:17 ET

LONDON, March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Urbanisation and economic development are pushing the growth of megacities, particularly in developing economies and BRIC countries. With population exceeding 10 million, these urban clusters face inevitable socio-economic, logistic and ecological challenges that, in turn, are pushing many daily commuters into the suburbs, making traffic volumes skyrocket. This is leading to the rise of Mobility Integrators (MI) that collaborate with various transport providers and facilitators such as online mobility service providers and booking agencies, online payment gateways, technology solution providers and application developers, and telecom operators, to provide real time solutions for commuters.

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Currently, the concept of mobility services is limited to purchasing airline/train tickets, booking hotel rooms and car hires for long distances travel or car/bike sharing services offered in combination with bus/train/tram travel, usually in association with public transportation providers. "However, the trend of integrating various mobility services, like Dutch OV-chipkaart and, Greenwheels car sharing service and similarly the use of London's Oyster smart card for different means of public transportation, is growing," says Mohamed Mubarak M. Moosa, Senior Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan's Automotive & Transportation Group in a new article entitled Mobility Integrators – Your mobility partner of tomorrow. This article is a part of Frost & Sullivan's upcoming research study titled Global Personal Mobility Trends in Megacities and Impact on Vehicle and Technology Planning and an existing research study on Sustainable and Innovative Personal Transport Solutions - Strategic Analysis of Car sharing Market in Europe.

By fully integrating the existing long and short distance transportation providers to create a single solution, MIs are poised to take transportation solutions to the next generation. Customers will be able to use the MI to book tickets for journeys that encompass both local transport and long distance travel. MIs will use mobile communication systems to update customers about departure/arrival time, bus/tube/train platforms, or pickup points for car/bike sharing. General packet radio service (GPRS) and Global positioning system (GPS) enabled phones will alert customers about upcoming destinations, traffic information and other navigation features. MIs will start exploiting the Web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0 Internet service to offer mobility-based applications (apps) on smart phones. "The current Apple iPhone App model is expected to pave way for a lot of independent companies to build and launch their own personalised mobile phone applications for mobility services," predicts Vigneshwaran Chanrdan, Program Manager, Frost & Sullivan's Business Strategy & Innovation Group.

In terms of return on investment (ROI), the core revenue stream will derive from selling mobility services as booking travel tickets but will also include member subscriptions and renewals, selling other mobility related applications for mobile phones, and advertisements. Besides personal mobility, the MIs will also offer mobility solutions to business clients as a travel portal for their internal use. Eventually, vehicle manufacturers are expected to partner with MIs or in some cases even emerge as a MI, creating a brand differentiation factor and promoting their vehicles. "There is a high probability that existing transport operators and online mobility service providers, like Travelocity.com and Expedia Inc., have a greater chance of emerging as MIs by extending their existing business model," argues Mubarak.

Although the concept of a dynamic transport solution integrating different modes under one umbrella is still in the nascent stage and the stakeholders are operating independently, the future will see an integrated approach. The use of mobile phone app and telecommunications will take this concept to the masses due to the high mobile phone penetration. In the long run, it will follow the business model of mobility applications being developed for mobile phone and marketed by independent developers.

To learn more about Frost & Sullivan's extensive research in this area, or to obtain additional details about this article and study, please contact Monika Kwiecinska, Corporate Communications, at [email protected] with your full contact details.

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