Forrester's conclusions appear to be based on the following question: "To what extent are you familiar with geolocation applications ilke foursquare and Gowalla that you can access on a mobile phone." Given the narrow, peculiar wording of this question, the results say little about location-based services in general.

In literally hundreds of interviews we’ve done with consumers, not a single one has used the term “geolocation,” so I’m not surprised that few consumers say they’re familiar with “geolocation apps.” In addition, while Foursquare, Gowalla and other check-in apps get enormous attention in the technology community, these apps represent only a small slice of the broader category of location-based services (see http://bit.ly/9yVYhl for an illustration and http://bit.ly/9ugm2M for a more comprehensive discussion of location-based services). Had the question referenced “mobile apps that provide information or results based on your current location, such as Google Maps, Yelp, etc.” the results would have been very different. Finally, most location-based services are designed for smart phones – the sample for the Forrester study appears to include both smart phone and feature phone subscribers. Familiarity and usage of LBS among smart phone subscribers is undoubtedly much higher.

Despite these qualifications, I don’t disagree with Forrester’s conclusion that “The social location world is littered with dozens of apps that connect people and places in unique ways but also segment users into app silos” (as suggested in the illustration at http://bit.ly/9yVYhl).

Dr. Phil Hendrix, immr and GigaOm Pro analyst; see report, Location – The Epicenter of Mobile Innovation (http://bit.ly/9ugm2M)