Apple iGroups patent portends geolocation app
Apple has filed a patent application which describes a geolocation-based social networking service that it calls iGroups and looks to be headed into the geolocation fray against Foursquare and others.
A small but growing niche in the social networking field is geolocation, with the market lead currently going to Foursquare. Foursquare is a location-based social networking website, software for mobile devices, and a game. Users “check-in” at venues using text messaging or a device specific application. They are then awarded points and sometimes “badges.” At this point in the development of the genre, market-leader Foursquare has about 450,000 users. For comparison purposes, Twitter claims about 6 million and Facebook says that it has approximately 400 million users.
According to a CNET story, the patent application was first noticed by the site Patently Apple, which watches such filings. If the patent application means anything, Apple would appear to have a desire to create an iPhone application and a system which would compete in the geolocation marketplace against Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl, Loopt, and others. Although the system described in the patent filing looks very much like the others, one Apple twist is that users of the Apple MobileMe service would be able to participate in the social networking app even if their cell phones did not have GPS capabilities, via something that Apple calls virtual GPS.
It could be that Apple has had its eye on he geolocation marketplace for some time. Some months ago Apple purchased PlaceBase, a company that produced a maps API called Pushpin and offered a mapping service much like Google Maps. Speaking of Google Maps, at the same time Apple rejected that Google application, they also rejected Google Latitude, an app which would have provided many of the features of the proposed iGroups app. In addition, Apple also hired Placebase founder and CEO Jaron Waldman, who became a member of Apple’s “Geo Team.” Based on all of this information, Apple may have a real interest in taking a run at geolocation social networking supremacy.
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