Alex Iskold of AdaptiveBlue wrote a fascinating article on potential mobile applications that will be made possible by integrated GPS. Imagine the following:

• Take a picture of someone or something and have it automatically post to a map online. Add comments to the world wide “geo-wiki”.
• Take a picture of something and have a web service identify it and provide information about the object based off of your location.
• Have your mobile device serve as a tour guide giving you information as you walk in a particular landmark or establishment.
• Scan a product and literally see if there is another store nearby or online with a better deal!

What’s going to make Apple so strong in this arena is that they have both high-standards and now an open development platform (like Facebook) which will encourage thousands of quality companies and developers to market innovative solutions. A $100-million iFund (venture capital) has already been set aside for those seeking to provide mobile solutions relating to mCommerce (mobile commerce), social networking, and location-based services.

Another entrant in the arena is Sense Networks. They have an interesting application that tracks and pinpoints cell phone activity in metropolitan areas. May be scary but such can be used to analyze and predict a plethora of marketing trends. Q: What types of restaurants do people most frequent after school and where are they coming from (based off real aGPS/GSM activity)? A: “Oh yeah!” - another McDonald’s should do just fine over there. Sense Networks currently has an application, called CitySense, that tracks where the “hottest” night clubs are based off of these metrics. Get ready, this is just the beginning!