Today Skyhook launched our first SDK for iPhone, called Local Faves.  Local Faves is designed to help developers add location tagging, and community and gaming functionality to any iPhone app.  The SDK brings the context of location to digital context-based apps, like music, wine, food, reference, books and more.  The features of the SDK create engaging communities within apps, driving user loyalty and more opportunities for monetization.  For example, in a Local Faves-enabled wine app, users could check-in to a restaurant via the wine they are drinking, giving the app developer the opportunity to broadcast user location.  Other features include fully customizable content tagging, allowing users to indicate that they loved, hated, favorite, saw, or read a piece of content within the app; and enabled sharing of this content and exactly where it was experienced via Facebook and Twitter.

In addition, developers can set up map views of Local Faves-tagged content, allowing users to, for instance, see where around the world their favorite song is playing, or view all songs playing locally. Then, a ranking feature provides stats on any piece of content to show who loves it, where, and location-based trends over time.

The initial launch includes partners like Audubon Field Guides, Drync and Appmakr.

Local Faves will be made available to developers in mid-April. To sign up to be notified when Local Faves is released, visit http://www.skyhookwireless.com/localfaves/register

Skyhook launched a new data intelligence service last week called SpotRank. SpotRank predicts the density of people in predefined urban square-block areas worldwide at any hour, any day of the week.

SpotRank is based on data from Skyhook’s Core Engine, which powers the location on tens of millions of devices. With this reach, the Core Engine network processes 300 million location requests daily. Skyhook has developed SpotRank by continually mining this anonymous location data to predict human behavior.

Skyhook provides four types of SpotRanks for 500 million square-block Spots in 770 metro areas around the world. Each Spot is assigned an average for every hour and day of the week. Check out some examples and use-cases of SpotRank here.

Visit SimpleGeo today to register for the SDK and start experimenting with the data.

Skyhook’s Maps Booster app for Symbian became the top selling app in Ovi today.  We have received a huge amount of positive feedback from users worldwide, and were even featured this week on the Nokia Ovi Daily Apps blog by Nokia themselves.  We are excited about all of the positive feedback and are looking forward to our download numbers increasing even further and spreading the use of Maps Booster across the globe.

Three more Android apps launched last month with Skyhook integrated to provide improved location services.  The first was Free Parking, a social networking app that allows users to find open parking spots nearby.  Users employ location share the position of their parking spot with others.  If you are looking for a parking spot, you can check the map to show taken or free shared parking spots.

Skyhook also launched with an app called ComingUp, an events finder tool.  The app uses data from Upcoming and Eventful  and location from Skyhook to show users events happening nearby.  You can limit the search to particular categories or search for specific events and view them on a map.  The app will also provide directions to the event.

Finally, AndShowtime integrated the Skyhook SDK, providing more accurate location for moviegoers.  The app uses Skyhook to show movie times nearby.  Users can also search by movie title, and add showtimes to their calendar.

All three apps are available for free today in the Android Marketplace.

Three more Android apps launched last month with Skyhook integrated to provide improved location services.  The first was Free Parking, a social networking app that allows users to find open parking spots nearby.  Users employ location share the position of their parking spot with others.  If you are looking for a parking spot, you can check the map to show taken or free shared parking spots.

Skyhook also launched with an app called ComingUp, an events finder tool.  The app uses data from Upcoming and Eventful  and location from Skyhook to show users events happening nearby.  You can limit the search to particular categories or search for specific events and view them on a map.  The app will also provide directions to the event.

Finally, AndShowtime integrated the Skyhook SDK, providing more accurate location for moviegoers.  The app uses Skyhook to show movie times nearby.  Users can also search by movie title, and add showtimes to their calendar.

All three apps are available for free today in the Android Marketplace.

Skyhook announced two partnerships recently, with both FoursquareX for Mac and Flixster for Android.

FoursquareX is one of the first apps to utilize Skyhook’s Core Location services on the Snow Leopard version of Mac OS X. This finally eliminates the app’s sole availability on mobile phones. Skyhook’s Core Location allows FoursquareX to automatically detect venues surrounding a user, and sends notification when friends check in nearby. You can then see you and your friends’ check-ins on a built-in map.

Now that Skyhook is powering location on devices outside of mobile handsets, FoursquareX demonstrates the cool possibilities developers have for apps on desktops. This broader availibility will allow our favorite apps, like Foursquare, and newer location-based apps to expand to desktops, netbooks and other nontraditional use cases.

FoursquareX is a free download for Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard users.

Skyhook also announced a partnership with Flixster this month, and is now providing the location services on the “Movies” app for Android. With Skyhook, the app can now provide more accurate showtimes and theater information to moviegoers. Flixster is a hugely popular app on iPhone, and now will have more accurate location on their Android version as well. Flixster’s apps are available today in the iTunes App Store, BlackBerry App World, Android Market and the Palm Pre Applications website.

Skyhook released version 3.4 of its SDK today with an update for every platform. Our major changes included adding support for Windows 7, Android 1.6, Android 2.0, and Snow Leopard. In addition we enhanced support for Windows, Windows Mobile, Symbian 5th Edition, Linux and OS X.

To download the SDK now and view the complete supported platforms list including Symbian, Android, Windows, Windows Mobile, Mac OS X and Linux, visit: Skyhook SDK

2009 was a fantastic year for Skyhook Wireless and the location-based mobile industry in general.  Skyhook announced partnerships with over 17 different Android applications with innovative uses of location, including market leaders like ShopSavvy, Locale, Sherpa and Aloqa.  We also partnered with some cool Windows Mobile and Symbian apps like Rummble.  In addition, we secured partnerships with three different laptop recovery products.  Dell announced that Skyhook will provide the location every Mini 10 Netbook, and Apple revealed our native availability on Snow Leopard.  Skyhook also launched its Maps Booster product, a consumer app for the Symbian platform, meant to improve location on any other LBS app downloaded, or simply the Nokia maps function itself.  We also began putting out monthly app reports and revealed some startling statistics and differences between the top mobile app stores.

2009 in the mobile industry saw an explosion of inventive location-based apps that have become staples in our lives.  Apps like Foursquare and Yelp are not traditional navigation or routing apps, yet use location in a cool and necessary way that makes them addictive.   Smartphone users across all platforms are now relying on these kinds of apps in their everyday lives.  Other staple apps like Shazam and Bump added location as well, resulting in unique new features to spice up their tried and true methods.

Not only did we see an increase in distinctive location apps, we also saw many examples of small developer teams actually making big profits from mobile apps.  Some examples include RedLaser, Foursquare and SCVNGR. No one thought over $1 million in profits could be turned from mobile apps, but this was the year that proved them wrong.  We also saw up and coming mobile app companies pull in major investments from VCs.  Some of these included Gowalla, Pageonce, Outside.in and Hot Potato.

Augmented reality also made a big splash in late 2009.  Some awesome app examples included Twitter 360, Layar, Gunman and Nearest Subway by Acrossair.  Staple apps like apps like Yelp, Bing Maps, Brightkite and Urbanspoon added the AR feature as well.

2010 should hold even more exciting developments for location in the mobile industry.  We predict we will finally see some real adoption of location-based advertising.  In addition, we foresee most mainstream mobile apps adding a location component, whether it’s local leaderboards or a way to find other users nearby and learn more about them.

One platform with an uncertain future is Android.  With all of the new Android devices rolling out in 2010, it remains to be seen whether this will help or hurt the platform.  Many developers are apprehensive that fragmentation will cause app development to become a challenge, while users are excited about the new Android devices.  It will be interesting to see whether the platform takes off or hurts itself.

For the Skyhook Developer’s program, we anticipate high adoption rates of our SDK across the Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile platform, and greater user satisfaction with location on Nokia devices with the purchase of our Maps Booster product.  We hope to inspire the development of more innovative location apps, and give users a way to more deeply and realistically connect with one another virtually and in the physical environment.

Follow us on Twitter in the New Year: @SkyhookWireless

Skyhook partnered with Distimo this month on our App Store Report for some fresh insight on the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry App Stores.  We analyzed top ranked apps in the iPhone App Store, and all location-based apps on Android and BlackBerry.  Here are the highlights of the report, as reported from the intro page:

-The Apple App Store has the largest proportion of paid location based applications (57%), with BlackBerry coming second (49%) and Google Android Market third (21%).

-Prices of Maps & Navigation applications on BlackBerry App World decreased from $16.13 in September to $13.74 (-14.8%) in November, while the average prices on Apple App Store and Google Android Market remained fairly stable despite the announcement and introduction of free Google Maps Navigation.

-The average price of location based applications on BlackBerry App World is about twice as high as on the Apple App Store ($14.37 compared to $7.34).

-Besides the Navigation and Travel categories, most location based applications are published in News & Weather and Social, such as AccuWeather, foursquare and Loopt.

We should also note that Distimo released today a mobile app store called Appstore.info which houses information and apps from all available mobile app stores.  You can browse through apps from each store and discover all the latest stats.

To get up-to-the-minute updates of Skyhook news and partnership announcements, follow us on Twitter: @SkyhookWireless