ULocate Widgets, and SiRFing with Openwave

ULocate has touted their Java ME widget capability since March, and in between signed on a few content publishers according to Silicon Valley bloggers.  And yesterday, the Boston gang secured 11M in additional funding to move forward with WHERE. 

ULocate is on to something.  Rather than attempting to launch blockbusters in the overcrowded, carrier-controlled Java ME download market currently short on marketing resources and spend, the ex-Mapquester's found a way to create Long Tail value with a platform that aggregates content from user-generated Web 2.0 sites within one download.  This is good for ULocate, good for Carriers, and good for Web publishers who don't care to learn about Location or have challenges deploying on a Carrier deck. The only shortcoming with WHERE is the download part which still requires ULocate D2C and Carrier-2-consumer marketing cash.  Nonetheless, it's a good near-term solution since imbedded mobile AJAX clients are years away from pervasive ubiquity. 

Today, SiRF and Openwave announced a longer term focus on imbedded capabilities for LBS Widgets, which will eventually enable aggregator's like ULocate, Web properties, or Media brands to write idle-screen location-enriched Widgets discoverable through content catalogue's anywhere on the Web.  This approach will take longer to reach mass market usage, but it is a necessary device infrastructure play needed for Web content niches to the reach mobile subscribers.

[Disclosure - I work for Openwave.  These views do not represent those of my employer.]