Foursquare is finally releasing an official iPad app

This sounds like a headline from 2010, but Foursquare announced Friday that it would soon be releasing an iPad app. Four years ago, there was speculation that the company would colonize the iPad after then-competitor Gowalla released its app on the platform. Gowalla has since been absorbed into Facebook. Meanwhile, the location-based app category that Foursquare largely pioneered has cooled off tremendously. Foursquare reacted to the market change this year by introducing Swarm, which continues to offer check-ins, while the flagship app has been repurposed to offer suggestions for restaurants and stores a user might like, à la Yelp. The split explains why Foursquare has decided it’s finally time to release an iPad version. Speaking at Mashable’s Media Summit on Friday, Steven Rosenblatt, the chief revenue officer for Foursquare, said the app would be released within a few weeks. The rationale, he said, was to give people “sitting on their couches” a way to plan restaurants to visit and future travel.