Update: First iPhone GIS App: What Makes it a GIS?

Now the same company offers Geology TX, its second “GIS iPhone app.” (press release)

——original post 7/8/09——-

You probably saw Monday’s press release from Integrity Logic announcing “the release of Geology CA, the first GIS (Geographic Information System) for the iPhone platform.”

I wanted to know what the company thought made it a GIS application, in contrast to the many mapping applications already available.

Company founder Max Tardiveau responded to my query.

I’d say there are three major differences between this app and all the others:

1 - it deals with mapping data other than the traditional roads and streets: geology, earthquakes, faults, surveying, mines and quarries, etc… with many more to come.

2 - all this data is organized in layers that can be shown, hidden, reordered, and made more or less transparent (this is probably the most basic function of any GIS)

3 - this application is completely self-contained : it requires no connectivity and can be used in the middle of nowhere (i.e. out in the field).