GPS is going to be huge on the upcoming Apple smartphone, but maybe not in the ways you think.
It's a Friday night and you're meeting your sister and some of her friends for drinks and dinner after work. You don't want to show up before your sister, but she can't take personal calls at her job. So, instead, you take out your iPhone and look at a map where her picture marks her location. She's still at work, but you notice your friend Dave is nearby at a bar, and the map has a link to a favorable Zagat review. So, you get walking directions and download a picture of the place, then head over.
Most multimedia phones have GPS, but few allow third-party software makers access the phone's location data. All of what we described above is possible, if you had a few different devices (a Helio Ocean, LG Voyager, and a Navigon 7100, let's say). With the iPhone, we expect more integrated GPS software, bringing together some of the most useful features from a variety of location-based services.
We think that Loopt will be huge. Loopt is basically a buddy list with GPS locations. So, you can see where your buddies are on a map. If Loopt links up nicely with the major online social networks, we can see adding all of our online buddies to our Loopt buddy list. The best part is that Loopt is platform independent, so it will also work on other phones, mostly phones from Boost Mobile and Sprint, but more are on the way.
We also see location being integrated into other applications in new and interesting ways. Geotagging photographs is the most obvious example, but surely there is also room for GPS and location in games, as well. We've seen ideas for phone setting profiles that change based on location, turning off your ringer when you're at a movie, for instance. We'd also like to see a Nike+ application that tracks our running (okay, walking) with a GPS breadcrumbs map, including speeds as well as distances.
Navigating with Google Maps is the least interesting application for GPS on the Apple iPhone 3G. We're most excited to see what third-party developers come up with. Tom Tom has already announced support, so surely there will be excellent navigation options for the iPhone. But navigation is only the tip of the iceberg for GPS, which is going to be the killer app for the next Apple iPhone.
Apple iPhone 3G in-depth look:
Apple iPhone 3G to go on sale for $200 on AT&T in July
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MMS, voice dialing and more to come soon
Price change will lead to new Apple iPhones
Apple App Store will attract talented developers
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