Some of the biggest news surrounding the launch of iOS 4 is in relation to location-tracking as a background process, opening up a world of opportunity for application developers. While LBS apps are quickly baking in the new capability, SimpleGeo has been busy laying the groundwork for other startups and app developers to utilize the new functionality as well, without having to reinvent the wheel so-to-speak.
SimpleGeo, which has long been perfecting its mobile location infrastructure solutions, has announced new options for full iOS 4 support for background location tracking and geofencing, effectively taking the guesswork out of the equation for app developers and startups wanting to get in on the action. Implementation is dead simple too, allowing developers to implement geofencing, for example, by adding 6 simple lines of code to their apps. Implementation of background tracking will only take about 30 lines of code.
In a conversation between SimpleGeo co-founder Joe Stump and TechCrunch yesterday, Stump explained a few examples of what’s possible using the new simplified infrastructure; “So you basically just say, ‘Track parislemon’ and we handle that in our API along with record history,” explained Stump. “I can then come back and say, ‘Show me the last 10 places parislemon was.” Another example could be when you switch neighborhoods with a location service, it could alert you that someone you know is around you (similar to something Loopt 3.0 offers), or SimpleGeo’s data could offer you the ability to do something as easy as automatically know when you enter a new state and give you a message like: “Welcome to the Sunshine State.“
SimpleGeo has always been at the forefront of mobile location, and its strategy of laying the groundwork itself instead of rolling out one-off services, apps or solutions is right on. The company’s solutions greatly reduce time-to-market for LBS apps that take advantage of the infrastructure so startups can focus on creating awesome location-based apps and services instead of writing line after line of code to make them location-aware. With iOS 4 and all its glory, something tells me SimpleGeo will maintain its relevancy for a long time to come.
