Xora Teams with Garmin

Location-based services (LBS) solutions provider Xora is getting together with Garmin International to provide a new navigation technology.

Garmin’s technology is being integrated with Xora’s GPS TimeTrack solutions to give field staff access to driving directions. Using the system, a worker can get a dispatch to his or her phone with turn-by-turn, voice-prompted directions to the next job with a single click on the handset. Or, a worker can enter an address to the phone manually and the system will generate turn-by-turn driving instructions along with visual cues on the handset screen.

It’s the type of application that customers have been asking for. “We said, OK, we will give you the best of the best,” says Ananth Rani, Xora co-founder and vice president of products and services.

The system also includes real-time traffic feeds from traffic.com, making it more efficient for drivers encountering changes in traffic. The system is offered for $5.99 as an add-on to Xora’s base product.

In the United States, Xora’s products are sold via the Sprint Nextel network. Last month, the technology supplier announced its first international launch with Telstra in Australia.

Xora and other vendors are capitalizing on the uptick in LBS. In 2011, the total population of GPS-enabled LBS subscribers will reach 315 million, up from 12 million this year, according to ABI Research.

Source-  wirelessweek Wireless Mobile Telecom