Apple To Feature Yelp Check-Ins Within IPhone Maps App, Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s coming iPhone map application will include Yelp Inc. (YELP)’s “check-in” feature to let users broadcast their whereabouts to friends, according to materials Apple distributed to software developers.
Apple Maps, which will replace Google Inc. (GOOG) as the default location service in software set to debut later this year, will allow users to communicate through Yelp without exiting the map and opening a new app, the materials show.
Yelp, a website that lets users review businesses ranging from plumbers to pet shops, introduced a check-in service for mobile phones in 2010 in an effort to help local merchants build loyalty with regular customers. Integration with Apple Maps may help Yelp challenge Foursquare Labs Inc. and Facebook Inc. (FB), two leading providers of check-in services.
“Apple is important for Yelp,” said Aaron Kessler, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates in San Francisco, in an interview. “About 40 percent of traffic to Yelp is from their mobile app. That number may be higher if you include browser- based mobile.”
The Apple developer kit, which was given to programmers earlier this month and examined by Bloomberg, includes screen shots of Yelp check-ins within Apple Maps. Trudy Muller, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, declined to comment, as did Vince Sollitto, a spokesman for San Francisco- based Yelp.
Apple To Feature Yelp Check-Ins Within IPhone Maps App
