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The iPhone's got Google Maps, which is great, but wouldn't be nice if it integrated a GPS chip or could be used with a GPS peripheral to allow your position to be pinpointed for real-time location-based services.

Well, you can now, sort of.

A company called Mexen developed Navizon, which it calls a Virtual GPS system or peer-to-peer wireless positioning system, a couple of years ago. That technology, compatible with Windows and Mac PC as well as Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Symbian, and UIQ smartphones as well as Java feature phones, is now available for the iPhone.

Here’s how it works:

Navison triangulates signals from Wi-Fi access points and cellular towers to identify a user’s location, just like GPS-enabled devices do through satellite triangulation, according to Mexen.

Unlike traditional GPS, this system is a grassroots collaborative endeavor, where users contribute what the company calls wireless beacons' locations (the peer-to-peer factor) to help other members simulate GPS on iPhone, for example. Mexen says the Navizon community is now composed of 75,000 mobile users worldwide.

"Just by installing our software and hitting the Locate Me button, iPhone users can now see their position on a map and get directions to their next destination." asserts Mexen CEO Cyril Houri. "This is just as if the iPhone was now equipped with a GPS chip."

Whether that last assertion is true or not is open to debate. As far as we're concerned, nothing beats good-old satellite GPS, except perhaps assisted (A-GPS) global positioning.

We'll give Mexen the benefit of the doubt and will give it a try, however. We will let you know what we discover. In the meantime, you can do the same during Navizon's 14-day trial period. If you're happy with the service and want to continue using it after that time, it'll cost you $24.99.