Since the beginning of the LBS revolution, many people have questioned the long-term viability of the concept from a usage standpoint.  A long-standing argument has centered around whether the act of “checking-in” via LBS apps like Foursquare and Gowalla will ever hit the mainstream.

It doesn’t help the cause when research is continually published indicating that just 1-4% of all connected users actively engage with an LBS app.  The fact remains that a majority of users wont use such apps over the long-term unless it provides unique value.  Rather than checking in simply for the sake of checking in, users will demand something in return.  LBS providers are slowly fulfilling that demand, which is why the future of LBS is as bright as ever.

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LBS mainstay Gowalla today debuted a major 3.0 update to its iPhone app — one that brings two major enhancements users have been asking for; a unified checkin solution and the ability to utilize a synced “places” database between Gowalla and other LBS apps like Foursquare and Facebook Places.

As the largest update to date, Gowalla 3.0 for iPhone now includes the ability for users to not only checkin on Gowalla itself, but to share those same checkins on Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter and even Tumblr.  The app now provides a solid “unified checkin solution,” which is something die-hard users and the industry in general has been waiting for.  In addition, you can now see checkins from all of your friends even if they don’t use Gowalla at all.

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With all the hype surrounding LBS services like Foursquare and Facebook Places, it’s easy to forget that the concept is still extremely limited in terms of wide-spread usage.  A new study by Pew Research underscores this data point by indicating that only 1 percent of online adults are using location services.

Men are twice as likely as women to be among these users, according to the research, and location services are more popular among Hispanic users, at 10 percent, than among white users (3 percent) or black users (5 percent).  The adoption is non-surprisingly being driven by those in the 18-29 age group, with the research showing 8% of this demographic uses LBS services on any given day.

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SCVNGR today launched a first-of-its-kind Facebook application to allow businesses to highlight their SCVNGR rewards and challenges on their local Place Pages.

Acting as a Place Page add-on for businesses using SCVNGR, the new app shows prominently in the left-hand menu section to allow visitors to access three tabbed sections: Rewards, Challenges and How to Play.  The idea is to add “greater harmony between Facebook Places and SCVNGR,” as the company has mapped all user activity — checkins, challenges, rewards and photos — back to the Facebook Place Page, rather than to the SCVNGR Place Page.

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Location-based app SCVNGR has been making headway recently with several high-profile partnerships to provide unique location-based reward and loyalty programs, despite competing with numerous competitors and the ominous launch of Facebook Places.

Focusing on the latter, CEO and Founder of SCVNGR, Seth Priebatsch, divulged to Mashable yesterday that his company’s app saw over 100,000 downloads in 48 hours following the launch of Facebook Places, effectively putting to rest the notion that Facebook aimed to destroy existing LBS apps with its Places launch.  Priebatsch actually attributes most of its recent growth to its quick integration with Facebook places, following in the footsteps of others such as Foursquare who has seen numbers rise substantially since access to the Places API became available.

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While LBS apps like Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt and others continue to evolve their respective advertising models, third-party providers are busy building platform of their own that leverage the communities surrounding such apps and services for unique integrated marketing campaigns.

One such startup, PlacePunch, recently debuted a new platform that allows businesses both big and small to run their own location-based marketing campaigns that integrate with Foursquare, Facebook Places, Twitter, Gowalla and others — effectively providing a one-stop platform to leverage mobile location from all the major players.  The platform allows for a variety of campaigns, including loyalty and rewards programs that take advantage of checkins, proximity to certain venues and other location-oriented attributes.

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Booyah’s latest LBS creation, InCrowd, has gone live in the Apple App Store.  Initially announced at Facebook’s “Places” launch event, InCrowd is the first app built off the Facebook Places API and the only location-based app that has exclusive access to Facebook search.

Leveraging data straight from Facebook, InCrowd takes the concept of “social gaming” to an entirely new level.  Beyond basic checkins and social utility, InCrowd allows users to create their own customizable avatars, “interact” with old and new friends nearby as well as accumulate status and virtual goods.

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