Location-Based Services in the Business

One of the areas I've been fascinated with lately has been the advent of Location-Based Services (LBS) applications on Smart Phones. There are a number a good applications that help you find friends and recommendations, based on where you are. Brightkite and Loopt are two examples of LBS services that help you explore your city and what your friends are up to.

Foursquare takes that concept even further by making a competitive event out of exploring your city, and some businesses are wisely taking notice by offering deals to Foursquare "mayors" (i.e. repeat customers). Repeat customers and friendly competition can excite your repeat clientele and expand an already loyal customer base. Similarly, businesses could use the "Bored?" features on Loopt to get an audience in the door of their music venue or club.

Marketing, in concert with LBS and social applications, is about to get very exciting. But, the real power isn't in the marketing. The real power lies in the mining of this data.

In the very near future, LBS will give us insight into patterns of buying behavior and consumer interaction that have never been fully understood.

The next phase of the iPhone will have an RFID chip.. This will enable consumers to uniquely identify themselves -- even make payments with -- their smart phone. All perfectly pinpointed to location, and embedded with information about friends, contacts, and the businesses they make purchases with. All controlled by a single device.

Will Apple have, at its fingertips, some the most powerful consumer purchasing data ever assembled? Time will tell. But whoever owns that data will be sitting on a goldmine.