They’re talking about you. Right on your doorstep. In front of your restaurant, your bar, your shop. Remember the poor service you gave that guy? Well now everyone who walks past knows about it. They know which bartender pours the best cocktails. They know who to speak to in order to get the best seat. They know that you offer discounts to ’selected’ customers. They know that your bar is better than your neighbours.

How do they know? The writing’s on the wall…but you probably don’t see it yet. You won’t see it until you have an iPhone and an application that I believe will change how we see the world around us. Graffitio is so simple, it’s genius.

“Attach conversations to the places you go and the things you see! As soon as you open Graffitio, it looks around you for Walls created by other users at restaurants, bars, stores, parks, events, or anywhere else you could imagine.

Read what other people have to say, and leave your own thoughts behind for others to find later. You can even create your own Walls. Graffitio connects you to people who have been there before and those who will follow.”

It’s just one of the many applications now available for the iPhone which make great use of the location-specific data. This isn’t the first time this technology has been talked about but it is the first time I’ve held it in my hand. There is no doubt other similar applications will soon find their way onto other mobile devices but in the meantime, Graffitio has a great opportunity to take the lead in this field.

At the moment the creator, anoopr, admits there are problems:

“Graffitio is still pretty raw. Someone on Twitter said that Release 3 is a solid 1.0, and I agree with that. In it’s current form, it’s not impressive. I’m really flattered that so many of you are so excited about it and see its potential. It’s really inspiring, and why I’m working my ass off to get new features into your hands.”

And, of course, the walls are being abused by ‘vandals’ who just want their make their mark with profanity but you can’t deny the potential.

For years, we’ve been told that location-specific technology will allow advertisers to jump out at us as we walk down the street, screaming out special offers, new products and ‘exclusive’ events. In using Graffitio, I see a very different world. One run by consumers who can share information, practically writing it on the wall of the establishment for all to see, allowing them to make a judgement without walking inside.

Some may see it as a mobile version of trustedplaces. I see it as one of the most powerful consumer tools of the future available today and PRs need to keep a close eye on how this technology develops because all the press coverage you work so hard to achieve just to get someone to walk in the door could be undone with the bad review they read on the doorstep.

One entrepeneur (there are other names I could use but I’m feeling generous considering it’s Friday) launched an application for iPhone entitled ‘I Am Rich’ which, from what I’ve read, consisted of an image of a gem and a secret mantra. Sounds nice. That is until you see the price is almost $1,000!

Despite the fact that eight idiots  customers purchased this seemingly useless app, people have complained (one of which ‘accidently’ purchased the app) and it has now been rightfully been removed from the store.

But I know you’re thinking exactly the same thing as I am. Never mind morals or ‘doing the right thing,’ I wish I’d thought of creating it and pocketing an easy $5,600!

So the iTunes App Store has finally arrived and we have a breakthrough in how customers are engaging with companies.

Before I go on, I should acknowledge that I’m (trying to) purposely ignore all the problems Apple had in activating 3G iPhones, the lack of a fully integrated push solution as part of their new mobileme service, yellow tinted iPhones and the constant crashing of the applications from the App Store. It’s only been three days but the impact of these problems are a growing concern for both new and loyal ‘fanboy’ customers who are voicing their concerns all over the blogosphere.

Moving on and looking to the (not so distant) future, companies have a great opportunity to place themselves in the pockets of consumers and considering how affordable the 3G iPhone is now, that audience has just grown. Of course, online services such as Last.fm, Shazam and Facebook have developed great applications that extend their traditional offering but other companies are becoming a little more creative.

Hats off to the team at Carling who developed iPint which I can only describe as the perfect game to play with mates after a few beers, followed by a virtual pint as a reward. Delicious and fully branded.

British Airways have provided a useful flight finder allowing frequent travellers to monitor changes without having to check to departure board. Although I probably would given the number of crashes from other apps I’ve experienced so far!

I’ll be keeping an eye out for other, creative applications coming from corporations who can afford to give them away for free which, let’s be honest, is the real clincher in whether consumers are going to try something out. Thankfully Carling and BA didn’t get greedy and try to charge for their apps but beware, the iPhone could soon become the new fighting ground for all those application developers who are moving on from Facebook.

Last week, Apple threw open the iPhone to developers, allowing them to create applications for the portable device. You can see the full presentation here.

The initial apps demoed at the event were impressive, expanding the useage of the phone/music player/web browser while targeting a variety of new audiences such as gamers (Super Monkey Ball), online socialites (AIM) and businesses (SalesForce).

So far the iPhone has led to a huge increase in mobile web browsing and it’s likely that the launch of apps in June will have a similar result.

We’ve already witnessed an explosion of Facebook applications (yes, we’re all a little tired of being bitten by our Vampire friends), but will we see big brands jumping on this opportunity and investing in the development of iPhone apps?

Based on the social media philosophy of always ensuring brand content created is either useful or entertaining, what better way is there to get a client into the pockets of consumers than with a high quality game or piece of software that actually assists them in their daily activities?

We’ve already witnessed brands developing content such as Cadillac’s Xbox 360 game or the IFA search engine from unbiased.co.uk and with the iPhone reaching out to new audiences, we look forward to an increase in brand-based applications specifically designed to be carried around 24 hours a day.