Geo-location based services such as Foursquare and Gowalla may be growing their active user bases but they aren’t exactly the most popular programs among Smartphone users.

According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, Foursquare and other location based applications are the least popular apps among smartphone users.

The survey asked 2,277 adults about their preferences when using their phones and more than half said they access social networks, send photos and view email, while only 12% of smartphone owners say checkin services are a regular part of their daily routine.

The study also found that checkin users are even less likely to share their location to Facebook and Twitter with just 9% of internet users and 14% of  experience social media users posting their locations to social networks.

Here’s a look at how Smartphone users are utilizing their devices programs:

While checkin numbers are still fairly shallow numbers are up from another Pew Research survey in November 2010 which found only a 4% market penetration among smartphone users, while only 1% of users are believed to use those services on any give day.

Market penetration for any company is important, howevergeo-location based services don’t necessarily need the same type of mass adoption to generate high-end advertising dollars since they are able to hyper-target users based on exact locations at any given time.With that being said, the more users who use a service, the better chance that service has of becoming integrated into everyday lives, something Foursquare, Gowalla and other location based services have not yet been able to achieve.