Dublin-based mobile social-networking firm Locle may have hit some snags along the way, having its iPhone application rejected by Apple no less than four times for small issues including button design, but a few days into its availability on the App Store and it is already a big success.
The application – Locle Mini – priced at €1.59, is already the No 2 ‘Top Paid’ application on the iPhone App Store within the category of social networking, only pipped to the post by Twitter app Tweetie (Stephen Fry’s choice of tweeting tool from his iPhone).
Locle’s iPhone app, on login, allows the user to change their status to what they’re doing and where they are, but also to see their Locle friend’s whereabouts on a mini Google map.
Tapping on your friend’s last status message will also zoom in on their exact location if you so wish, while the ‘Locle Yokels’ feature will list the 10 nearest users without giving away their actual location.
The status message can be up to 140 characters long, and can also be cross-posted to your Twitter profile, along with your latitude and longitude.
When siliconrepublic.com spoke with Locle co-founder Ronan Higgins last week, the future of location-based mobile networking was discussed and Higgins talked about Locle’s Serendipity technology.
Serendipity, he explained, is a proximity-based alert system whereby the technology running in the background detects and alerts the user when friends, or even friends of friends, come within a certain distance.
By Marie Boran
