Foursquare Found as Featured Location Service for INQ Facebook Phone

Closing in on 10 million users, Foursquare is set to be featured as the default location application on the INQ Cloud Touch phone, also known as the Facebook phone. Founder Dennis Crowley said INQ has chosen to implement Foursquare’s API in its phone to offer the location services. It’s not a commercial deal, but it shows Foursquare is growing into a popular application for phones and is a worthy rival to Facebook Places.

Speaking today at TechCrunch, Crowley said the application won’t appear until this summer when the phone gets an OS update. But he said it will be a good way to show off what Foursquare can do. The app will show check-ins, nearby locations and allow people to view photos, get recommendations, see deals and create a to-do list.

“We’re seeing this as a great way to introduce this to folks who have never used Foursquare,” Crowley said.

It’s another strong sign for Foursquare, which is poised to hit 10 million users soon and has hit 600 million check-ins in the last 12 months. Crowley said there are, on average, 3 million check-ins a day, with half of check-ins occurring internationally. And it shows how Foursquare’s API is being tapped in creative ways. There are about 10,000 developers using the Foursquare API. It’s also a nice win against Facebook, which has its own location service and is the main attraction of the INQ Cloud Touch.

Crowley was quiet on funding news, revenue or firm future plans. And he declined to talk about a new report that Foursquare was working on a deal to partner with Groupon on local deals. But he said the company is just getting going and enjoying the benefits of scale as it ramps up with more staff and more users.