There is no doubt that social networking has become the phenomenon of the age. It has moved forward with such a pace that users have probably out stripped technology in terms of the number of applications available. Many of the applications available for the iPhone have connectivity to networks such as Facebook and Twitter, but many have only a limited range of functions when compared to the main networks. The iPhone has shown itself to be uniquely placed to move telephone networking forward; however, the applications available do not help it to be fully integrated into the wider world of social networking.

Few of the applications available are ideal. Many of them have limited functions which only work locally, so it is up to the user in the end to choose an application which is going to be of most use to them. Some of the applications, such as Bluepulse are fairly simple applications which are simple and fast, but lack many of the functions users of Facebook and Twitter are used to. Although it has the appearance of a web page, with friends, messaging and status updates, that is about all the application has to offer. Facebook has an application itself, which although functional, is inferior to the real thing. It has e-mail recognition and integrated chat; however the applicati0n does not run in the background which means you have to be logged in. This means that e-mail and chat are not active all the time. The application does not have location awareness, which some of the other applications have. Another application which demonstrates the wide variation in functionality is iFob. This application is fine if you are within a reasonably close proximity, so great if you are in a concert or bar, and may be useful for business networking events. However, you cannot add friends and can only be used locally.

Loopt is an application which has Twitter and Facebook integration, although actually linking up with Facebook friends is not all that easy. People profiles are fairly simple with just a name and picture. Twitterlator may be one of the better applications for Twitter users. With full search and full friend functionality as well as camera, and location integration, it also has an emergency button which can use to alert friends. However this application can be slow at times and still does not run in the background.

There is no doubt that there is huge potential for social networking applications, and companies are probably still at the stage where we are gathering information. There are a number of business networks starting to spring up which will link people with similar status or positions within companies so that ideas can be exchanged. Almost fifty per cent of iPhone users access social networking sites on iPhone, which is almost twelve times the market average, so the phone and it`s demographic are ideally placed for a bright future in social networking. For up to date iPhone news, go to apple iphone