Tracked Down: Google Just Quietly Launched An Official Latitude iPhone App
I guess Google really is in a feisty mood tonight. After the Chrome Web Store, Chrome OS, some leaked Google +1 information, and a Google Groups re-launch, we've just gotten word that Google has launched an official Latitude app for the iPhone.
Context & Ripple Effects
The release extends a line that runs back to Google's first iPhone application in December 2007 — Google has been building for Apple's handset since well before it had its own mobile OS to push. An official Latitude client matters because location was becoming the next contested layer on the smartphone home screen.
TechCrunch reads the drop as deliberate: the same day brought the Chrome Web Store, a Chrome OS announcement, and a Google Groups relaunch, all confirmed in the record, with Google +1 details circulating as an unconfirmed leak ahead of any announcement. Whether the Latitude app is part of a coordinated offensive or opportunistic timing is TechCrunch's framing, not settled fact.
First-order effects
- iPhone users get a first-party Latitude client rather than browser access, putting Google's location service directly onto Apple's device through Apple's own storefront.
Second-order effects
- Location-focused services competing on iOS now face a free Google client on Apple's platform in addition to Google's strength on Android, tightening pricing pressure toward zero in consumer location sharing.
- Google simultaneously distributes consumer software through Apple's channel while announcing Chrome OS against desktop incumbents — a dual posture that raises the stakes for how Apple treats rival first-party apps.
Third-order effects
- If Google keeps pairing its own operating-system ambitions (Chrome OS) with aggressive distribution on iOS, platform boundaries blur into multi-front competition rather than sealed ecosystems — though whether Apple tolerates that depth indefinitely is the open question this moment poses.
The trend: Consumer web companies are learning to fight on rivals' platforms even as they build their own operating systems, with Google's iPhone push landing the same day as its Chrome OS bet.