Using LBS for Caffeine

October 19th, 2005 by Eric

Greystripe is an upstart, based in Mt. View, CA working on LBS (Location Based Services) applications. They asked me to check our their first product, Caffeine Finder, which they built for the RIM Blackberry platform. It is a FREE application which means you should try if you have a BlackBerry and are curious about location aware applications.

Caffeine Finder works on any BlackBerry with data services but what is unique is that for BlackBerry devices like the 7520 on the Nextel Network it uses automatic location technology. By using real-time GPS built into the device, the application can find the nearest coffee shop, based on your current location, an address you specify, or even an address from your contact list. That way, I can always find the nearest Starbucks, should the green sign be obstructed by trees, buses or the sun J Starbucks never far away

Their first incarnation only finds coffee shops, but they will soon be adding other brick and mortar shops, such as fast food joints. Well, I guess the unhealthy stuff that we crave first, then the bars, restaurants, movie theaters, etc. will soon follow. One drawback to their application is more on the mobile operator fault. It would be great if this application could be ported over to more platforms and more networks. But since LBS has yet to be standardized and widely deployed for 3rd party use such as Greystripe, being able to use this service will be limited. Finally, Caffeine Finder, is one of the first up close applications for mobile where I can see it actually lead to *transacting commerce* versus cursory potential for commerce. This is particularly important since more applications need to think about driving commerce through mobile transactions to create a successful ecosystem in mobile content and services.