Seems like Apple has yielded to join the list of location based social-networking services. It cannot be denied that location apps are more commonly used by the people nowadays.

Apple deliberately brought out an Apple patent application on Thursday for a social-networking service called iGroups that utilizes geographic location data to connect iPhone and other mobile-device users with each other.

iGroups would allow friend groups attending an occasion to stay in touch with each other and allocate information in real time. This sounds familiar because similar geolocation apps that accomplish the same thing are exploding more frequently - like Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl, Loopt, and many more. As per the patent, iGroups is a bit different on its base. However, using Apple's MobileMe service, iGroups users who don't have GPS on their phone can still contribute in the stream of information sharing with virtual GPS.

Another reason there maybe for such a decision been taken by Apple Inc. is that, several months after the Latitude battle, Apple bought a company called PlaceBase, and the founder and CEO Jaron Waldman, happened to become a member of Apple's Geo Team.