Google Latitude… “Coming Soon” – Really? (iPhone)

For quite some time now Google has promised iPhone users the Google Latitude application.

To be honest, I thought it would come out with the release of the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone version 3.0 software. Alas it didn’t.

There has been much talk and a great many complaints pertaining to how Google has handled Latitude and it’s iPhone audience.

Currently Google Latitude is supported on:

• Android-powered devices, such as the T-Mobile G1
• iPhone and iPod touch devices (coming soon)
• most color BlackBerry devices
• most Windows Mobile 5.0+ devices
• most Symbian S60 devices (Nokia smartphones)

All the iPhone users have is a “Coming Soon” screen. And it’s all that has been there since Latitude’s initial release.

Some would say that all Google needs to do is not hold that Carrot out and just say “it’s not supported yet”, others think that Google should give iPhone users a release date or at least let them know what the delay is.

Personally, I can’t wait for Google Latitude to appear on the iPhone. I do think it’s taking Google too long to release it on the platform but I’m not going to rant and rave about it (well, at least not much more than I am now).

Google gives us so very many wonderful applications and services, many of them for free. Google Latitude is a free service. Beggars can’t be choosers, right?

If someone else (Microsoft) were to release a Latitude-like service and it were to be available on the iPhone then that would be Google’s loss.

It may not be good business sense to just lease your customers –potential and existing- standing and waiting but let’s face it, it could be another year before Google releases Latitude on the iPhone and we’ll groan and complain about it but we’ll all still download and use it.