LinkedIn launches iPad app

— -- With more than 150 million members, LinkedIn is well established as a leading social network for professionals.

But LinkedIn's mobile business has had a major void when it comes to a device more and more of its members are increasingly relying on — notably, the absence of a dedicated app for the iPad.

That's about to change. On Wednesday night, LinkedIn launches LinkedIn for the iPad. The brand new app, now available for download, LinkedIn says, includes features that are not available at LinkedIn.com on the web.

Mobile, even without the dedicated app, has been a big deal for LinkedIn. The company's existing apps for the iPhone, Android, Palm and BlackBerry devices represent the social network's fastest growing consumer segment. LinkedIn reports that each and every second, 41 LinkedIn profiles are viewed from a mobile device and 19 LinkedIn people searches are conducted. And the year-over-year growth for folks visiting LinkedIn from an iPad on the tablet's browser is 250%. (You have also been able to employ the LinkedIn iPhone app on the iPad.)

The new app does a nice job of exploiting the extra real estate on the iPad screen. It consists of a main hub page with three large icons: All Updates, You, and Inbox.

The All Updates section consists of screens with news and alerts that may be relevant to your career: who has viewed your profile, what your coworkers are sharing, and who among your contacts has changed jobs. You can swipe to see more comments and stories from people and news outlets, and easily tap to share links or send to your "connections."

An optional calendar sync feature lets you see all the people you're scheduled to meet that day, along with what they look like (assuming you don't already know), who you know in common, where they've worked, as well as what they are commenting and sharing on LinkedIn.

The calendar and job changing features are unique to LinkedIn Mobile, and will also be made available on LinkedIn's iPhone and Android apps.

You can also filter updates to find the professional groups you're part of. A search box or search icon (depending on how you're holding the iPad) makes it easy to find all the people on the service.

LinkedIn for the iPad may be long overdue but my initial read is positive.