Apple will prevent third party developers from using its iPhone platform to enable location based advertising, in a move which is perhaps designed to protect its own future plans in the mobile ad space.

In a recent posting on its iPhone developer site, Apple informed developers how the Core Location framework for the iPhone allows third parties to build applications which know where end users are and can deliver information based on their location, such as local weather, nearby restaurants, ATMs, and other location-based information.

But, Apple warned that if developers use location-based information “to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user’s location,” the app will be returned and will have to be modified before it is accepted.

In January, Apple acquired mobile advertising firm Quattro Wireless, for somewhere in the region of $250m and $275m. Quattro is something of a competitor to Google-owned Admob, with an advertising network offers display advertising, SMS/MMS/shortcodes, rich media, video and custom programs including in-app advertising.

The company has its own Q Deliver ad server, Q Elevation targeting platform and Q Analytics analytics engine, which may suggest that Apple has plans to encroach upon Google’s territory in the mobile advertising space.