Top Apple Travel Downloads

Posted on 11 April 2009 by Norm Rose

With Apple approaching 1 billion in downloaded apps, I thought it would be good time to take a look at the top 5 most popular free and paid travel apps on iTunes

PAID.
1. Flight Track - this application from Mobiata is similar to Web based applications such as Flight Stats, but produced by a small mobile app vendor. – Question why doesn’t Flight Track have the top position here?

2. Tipulator – Allows you to calculate the appropriate tip for service. Question: Isn’t that essentially a calculator?

3. Where The Locals Eat – was created by the dining guide company of the same name. The popularity of this paid app reinforces the demand for local dining advise


4. iFare Finder – is a Kayak like meta-search application. The interesting aspect of iFare Finder is that it is only a mobile app. I could not even find a Website for RIV Creations the creator of iFare Finder, only a blog. Having helped a client last year create a mega-search engine, simple screen scraping will not work as a long term solution. Time will tell the quality of the engine behind iFare Finder.

5. Zagat to Go – At last a familiar brand name!

FREE
1. Google Earth – shows how Google is already dominating the mobile space


2. Urbanspoon – a slot machine that allows the user to chose a type of restaurant randomly


3. YELP – the UGC local restaurant and services

4. WiFi Finder – locate free and paid Wi-Fi networks

5. Choice Hotels Locator – At last a familiar travel brand!


So what does this all mean? Though brands such as Kayak, Hotels.com and Disney do appear in the top 20, a vast number of travel brands are missing. Now multiply this by 1000 and you can start to see how the explosion of app stores from Google, RIM Blackberry, T-Mobile and Nokia will further lead to missed branding opportunities unless the travel industry major players recognize that mobile downloads are here to stay and that they need to be part of every travel company’s strategy.

Tags | , , , , ,
  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/11551860334297053838 Yameen

    Interesting info re: Tipulator. I agree that it seems to be, really, just a calculator. More interesting, though, is that it is atop the “paid app” list. Not only is 15 or 20% tip easy to calculate in yor head (take 10% and double it!), but people are paying for this. Any thoughts as to what the psychology behind this is??

  • Anonymous

    I think the tip calculator is better used when the check is being paid by multiple people. Or even if you're trying to figure out each person's bill individually on a combined bill (and need to figure tax and tip). Etc.

    Though, as Yameen says, I don't know how much a service that deos that simple math is really worth>

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/01122298162221612889 Stephen A. Joyce

    Great post Norm. These are a little different then the ones I tagged as my top 5 but primarily because I find the camera and social networking tools to be the ones I use most. The iPhone’s mapping and sharing capabilities are what I enjoy when oversees, especially traveling alone on business. Personally, the mental exercise of calculating a tip is a good thing. I’m not sure if I would pay for that one either. =)

  • http://www.holidaycityjapan.com/tokyohotels/ Dhruv Blanc

    Hey! This is really interesting! Thank you for the interesting list of travel apps on iTunes. Some of these travel apps are really useful while there are some others on the list that do not seem to be of much use to me. However, it is really surprising that only a few familiar brand names make it to the top travel apps. Hopefully, the travel brands will gradually realize the importance of mobile downloads in the present day world. Then we will be able to see more familiar names in iTunes apps.