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Telematics and the world of tomorrow

Astute marketing companies will be able to measure customers in real-time.

Jessie Rudd
By Jessie Rudd, Technical business analyst at PBT Group
Johannesburg, 29 Oct 2014

In a quick and simplified nutshell, telematics is the use of wireless devices and 'black box' technologies to transmit data.

A number of car insurance companies are making use of this technology in the form of tracking devices - a device fitted to a vehicle, which can be used to trace the vehicle in the event of theft. It can also be used to measure distance travelled, speed, harsh acceleration and dangerous cornering.

What few people realise, though, is that every day, most people unwittingly carry around a similar device. The very first phone call, made by Alexander Graham Bell, was made in March 1876 [1]. The first cellphone call was made in April 1973, by Martin Cooper, an employee of Motorola [2]. The first phone to be referred to as a 'smartphone' was the IBM Simon Personal Communicator, released to the American public in 1994 at a cost of $899 on contract [3].

Simon says

The 'Simon' is as far away from the smartphones of today as it was from the phone that Alexander Graham Bell used. Today, every smartphone on the market comes with built-in telematics. The ability to track movement and pinpoint location are just two of the standard features included.

Discovery Insure recently launched a competition in which an app downloaded to users' phones could track how well they drove, the distance driven and whether the phone was used (moved) during transit. Users were rewarded with competition entries based on their scores.

Samsung, in Australia, did something similar. It launched an app that rewards and promotes safe driving. Called the S-Drive, it is a safe driving programme that fully understands and uses Samsung's strongest connection point to the young: the smartphone.

Once installed, the app cuts out the phone's signal so drivers aren't distracted while driving. It also uses the phone's built-in telematics to track distance and speed in order to determine how safely the driver is driving. The more safe kilometres driven, the better the rewards.

Considered a resounding success, the S-Drive will now become a factory-installed, standard application on all Samsung phones.

These are just two companies using the basics. In an always-on, always-connected world - people are even more connected than they think.

Boundless potential

The possibilities for a savvy marketing company are endless and limited only by the imagination. Directed and targeted marketing, based on information gathered in real-time by the telematics of a smartphone, could very well revolutionise the world today.

What if I go to Woolworths? The Woolworths App on my phone, which has permission to view my location and send me push notifications, registers that I am either in, or close to, one of its stores. Being a Woolworths card holder, my purchases and preferences are used to form a profile of me. Using this profile, along with my location, the app offers me an immediate and tailored marketing offer, which is only valid for the duration of my current store visit.

The ability to track movement and pinpoint location are just two of the standard features included.

What if I am about to go on a trip, via taxi? The Discovery Insure App I have on my phone registers that I am at a long-haul taxi rank. Being based in South Africa and having the statistics and background of taxi use at their fingertips, the likelihood of an accident is calculated. The app immediately offers me targeted and affordable death and disability insurance, available immediately and only valid for the duration of the current trip.

Unlike tracking devices that are fitted to a car and are effectively limited to measuring only an inanimate object, the telematics in a smartphone offers so much more. Most people are so dependent on their phone, it literally travels everywhere with them. With this kind of attachment, clever marketing companies can measure the person, in real-time, at all times.

The possibilities for the volume of data that will be created and collated are also staggering. True, it will probably just add to the big data explosion and subsequent noise. However, there is no denying the insight it could provide will be invaluable.

For the first time, an individual is measured, tracked, traced and targeted. In real-time.

[1] http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/recon/jb_recon_telephone_1.html
[2] http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/04/the-first-mobile-phone-call-was-made-40-years-ago-today/274611/
[3] http://www.phonearena.com/news/Did-you-know-what-was-the-first-smartphone-ever_id58842

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