While there is room for new technology to transform how brands can reach consumers, competing markets and inherent weaknesses within each offering could hinder mainstream adoption.

There has been quite a lot of buzz around the advent of location-based services such as foursquare, with the most notable benefit being the ability to draw consumers in-store.

With Google, MasterCard and Citi reportedly teaming up to go head-to-head with the U.S. carriers’ Isis joint venture with Discover Card and Barclaycard, a war in the near field communication space is on the horizon.

As an official launch partner of Foursquare version 3.0, sporting goods retailer Sports Authority is offering consumers Flash Special deals and other discount offers via the location-based mobile social network.

At SXSW this week, JiWire and TabbedOut, which lets bar and restaurant customers pay their tabs via their smartphones, are hosting a location-based campaign and bar crawl March 12 and 13 at watering holes around Austin.

Location-based ads are driving mobile shopping, with 17 percent of the on-the-go audience making purchases via mobile, according to a JiWire report.

Loc-Aid, a location-as-a-service company that connects mobile enterprises to wireless subscribers, has secured $13 million in a Series C financing round to support the company’s growth.

British retail giants Marks & Spencer and House of Fraser are distributing location-based mobile coupons to opted-in O2 subscribers.

Supermarket giant Food Lion and Concentrics Restaurants are running mobile-social marketing programs to drive foot traffic to their bricks-and-mortar locations and encourage customer loyalty.

AT&T is creating the Location Information Services platform to help businesses and organizations with mobile initiatives improve productivity and have better visibility into their assets.