“In February I wrote a post called ‘Will There Be A (Successful) iPhone-Only Social Network?’ and presented an argument that the iPhone SDK presented a compelling opportunity to launch a mobile social network while avoiding the chicken and egg problem that any new network, and particularly a mobile network, would encounter. iPhone penetration in Silicon Valley, and among early adopters, is so high that the application could spread virally among those communities. As the network gains traction, it could expand to Google’s Android platform and grow from there,” Michael Arrington reports for TechCrunch.
“iPhone users are the perfect group to launch the network to. They’re passionate and elitist, and will like the idea of being in an iPhone-only club. Go to a party and see a picture and first name of everyone there who’s holding an iPhone – then meet them and add them as friends. Then, once mutual friendship is established, see those people wherever they are in the world, along with presence information telling you what they’re thinking, or up to,” Arrington reports.
“I believe in the idea so much that I explored putting together a team to build a basic network on top of the iPhone SDK. But I abandoned that idea last week when I saw a live demo, on the iPhone, of an upcoming social network that does everything I called for in that February post,” Arrington reports.
“The startup behind the new application won’t let me disclose their name yet. But the application is awesome. It shows you everyone around you who has it installed on an iPhone (default privacy is set to off, but can be changed). Users can scroll through nearby users, and set filters for men, women or age ranges. If you find someone interesting you can pull up their profile and ping them. If they respond you can start a chat, on the phone or in person. Of course, they can also choose to block you,” Arrington reports.
“Location is based on the triangulation feature of the iPhone, which is accurate enough to get this going… I saw the app running on an iPhone and even the early prototype left me speechless. It will, I believe, prove to be very popular, and very valuable,” Arrington reports.
More in the full article here.
Forgot to say that I knew him from high school. Now, he is one of the biggest coke dealers in Boulder and drives a $60,000 car. Such a change..
I want to be elitist so much I can almost taste it!!!!
When are we going to get the IPhone in Canada?????? Motorola just screwed us over by deleting Mac interfacing on their top model cell phone. I had to spend $500 to learn this!! – the rotten swine!!
But I’m not bitter!!!
I’m feeling too elitist to particiate in anything this “common”. I mean with iPhones selling for $299, almost anyone can steal enough money to buy one. I’m just to jaded, and need to find another more elitist platform that no one has yet. I’ll keep everyonne posted.
@ Gone Nuts
Relax! I hear there is a GoldVish owners group starting up in Dubai.
Money = Taste. At least that’s what they tell me.
People will have to have more in common than just being iPhone owners. I for one prefer to go to parties where I’m the only one with an iPhone. It’s a great conversation starter.
Yet another social network not to join.
PS The assumption that anyone that owns an iPhone is “smug” is stupid.
Is this liked blackberry messenger thatd be sick
Am i just smug or is getting and giving constant attention through these social networks alienating ? I don’t believe knowing my friend is eating an egg salad sandwich for lunch is somehow fundamental to our relationship, I think it’s spooky that I’d really want to know, or he’d bother to text me that. I think people are too self-absorbed when they feel others want to know their every move. People are losing their ‘people skills’ by not forming reality based interpersonal relationships. When I realized everyone on my myspace page wanted to be friends virtually, but not in real life, I stopped calling them friends and removed them, and I’ve seen people with hundreds of ‘myspace friends’, almost like they were collecting stamps. Social networking is only good for advertisers for the most part, everyone else could use IM, or the phone. Unfortunatey, this crap will probably infect the iphone with its irrelevance, but I wish people would stop living a virtual life and live a real one.
Mace not included.
@Skippy
Sometimes it’s not just about virtual friends. Personally, all of my MySpace friends are people I really know and knew before MySpace. I use MySpace to keep connected with friends I have no other contact with. I have some friends who live in other countries, and MySpace is great for keeping in touch with them.
Through MySpace, I found a bunch of old school friends that I otherwise probably never would have seen before. That’s the only reason I still have my MySpace. Because I loathe the concept of “virtual friends,” these people you’ve never met and probably never will, and who knows, the women could be men and the men could be women.
I think Las Vegas just found their killer app for the iPhone.
-jcr