Could location-based networks be a killer app for the iPhone?

Location-based social networks have been a theme for a few years now, but pretty much dropped off the radar until recently. Until iPhone apps, that is. There are different services, but essentially all of them help you locate friends and services the same time and place as you, so you can, for example, see that Joe is shopping in the same street as you right now, and find somewhere to invite him for coffee. Now these apps seem to be making headway, and could be a great route for local publicity, as local as the newspaper and as immediate as local radio - and targeted, too.

The Washington Post did a good review of location-based social networks for the iPhone last week, so here’s a very short view of the main players. The early leaders, Loopt and Moximity, came out well before the iPhone, but are heavily targeting it now. Moximity uses your existing contacts from Facebook and Twitter; Loopt has even given TechCrunch its own version so TechCrunch followers can meet each other at conferences. Pelago’s Whrrl, for example, is strong on local information, whereas uLocate’s ‘Where‘ app or the Limbo service, with its own Facebook-style wall, provide the chance to meet new people. Zintin, has a group chat feature, too. All are on Washington Post partner TechCrunch’s Crunchbase service for more business background details. Washington Post’s view is that none of them is quite a killer app yet, and that it’s a matter of time before MySpace and Facebook come in and take over.

What’s wrong with this picture? Well, for one thing Facebook was there when the iPhone launched, and that has not stopped others getting the funding or the kudos, e.g. Pelago’s recent successful round. I don’t think we can be sure Facebook is going to be a winner here despite an early advantage. Location-based services are different from the home social network, because they are perfect when you are not at home, and not much use when you are. ‘Cometh the platform, cometh the app’ could be the story.

It’s not just the nature of the service, but the way the market grows. Though Loopt etc. were originally aimed at the whole mobile market, the key platform is now the iPhone, with strong sales, user-friendliness, strong sales, and of course the Appstore. So the market also contains an interesting positive feedback loop that is different from PC sales. The mobile phone is a social instrument at heart, and location-based social networking apps could be as attractive to some users as SMS. If the vehicle is the iPhone, and the app catches on among groups of friends, that will push sales of both phone and app, a from of localized viral growth that depends completely on adoption within particular groups. Perhaps a key to what happens next is how other phone manufacturers will respond to the threat of Apple getting the kind of market traction they did with the iPod.