Now a couple of weeks ago, I downloaded the new Windows Live Search for my old HTC S710 smart phone. One of the key functions is that you can tell it where you are and then it can tell you your nearest garage, pub, pet store etc and then map this on a street map or even a satellite view. It will even give you directions on how to get there.

The downside was that I had to tell the application where I was.

Now up to now, I have always questioned the need to have GPS on a mobile phone other than as a true geek toy. Sure you can run TomTom on it but then you can play music on it but that doesn’t stop most people carrying a mobile phone AND an iPod. But here we have an application that really benefits from actually knowing where it is.

So we roll forward a couple of weeks and I now have a new phone in the shape of the new HTC Touch Pro. This phone has GPS and sure enough, Windows Live Search works a treat by using the GPS to work out where it is and then using that information to give you information relevant to where you are.

But Google seem to have gone one better. Sure Google maps for mobile will use the GPS function but they also have a feature called My Location and this is where things really start to get clever because Google and (others such as the Open Cell ID project) are busy mapping the whole planet but not only are Google giving us maps, satellite views, street view and goodness knows what else, they are also busy mapping the location of every mobile phone mast.

So as the phone is always connected to a mast, if you know the unique cell ID of that mast, you can work out roughly where you are. And you don’t need GPS to do it.

Now in a big city, this can be accurate to a couple of blocks whilst in the countryside it might only be accurate to a couple of miles but quite often, for looking up local services etc, this is more than accurate enough.

So now I have to question again, why I would want GPS on my phone?

All we need now is to see location aware applications developed.