Apple Reveals a Powerful Location-Based Service for the IPhone
Imagine standing at the entrance of a restaurant and viewing their menu on your iPhone or entering a public library and being able to access their database. The minute you leave the library or the front of that restaurant, the app disappears so that you don't clog up your iPhone with hundreds of local business apps.
Within the sixteen patent applications that were published by the US Patent & Trademark Office for Apple Inc today, a single gem emerged. It's a very powerful new concept for a location based application service that is one of the most ingenious ideas that have surfaced on this subject in some time. The idea is simple. Deliver a location based service to information savvy iPhone users that wish to receive temporary retail and service-based applications. I don't know if Apple will tackle this at their upcoming developer conference, but this is a phenomenal opportunity for hungry developers and/or Business Form companies looking for a new avenue for revenue. There are millions of non-geek business owners who are going to want in on this service so as to attract new tech savvy iPhone using clients. Snooze on this opportunity and you'll Lose.
Temporary Location iApp: Restaurant Seating or Ordering
In Apple's patent FIG. 5B below, we see an iPhone (#520) that includes content identified in a database associated with a location of a mobile device. Note that there are two temporary location based apps on the iPhone. One is identified as icon 530 relating to a restaurant reservation timer and icon 535 relating to a restaurant menu.
The idea is that when an iPhone user that has this location based content service activated, simply by approaching a restaurant The user of the device may, for instance, view a seating wait time icon 530 that displays the estimated wait time before being seated. This may be displayed, for instance, where a user of the device provides a PIN, telephone number, or other identification information to a restaurant hostess, or alternatively, identifies that the user is waiting electronically using an iPhone.
The place order icon 535 may be selected by the iPhone user to view and place an order for food electronically. For instance, the content service may include order software associated with the restaurant, which the user could access via the place order icon to submit a food order electronically to the restaurant. Because these icons 530, 535 automatically appear on the user's iPhone when the user is at the restaurant, the user does not need to pre-configure and/or pre-download content to the device prior to arriving at the restaurant.
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