Mike Boland of BIA Kelsey is overseeing the mobile local search panel.
Danny Francis of Cellcity walks through an implementation of GoOrlando which appears to be a simple IYP put on an iPhone. Per Danny’s comment below this was just a demo app to show what a basic local mobile search app could be. I am curious to see what there non-demo apps might look like.
Erron Silverstein of Yellowbot is now walking us through Yellowbot’s iPhone app and it’s clear that they have put much more thought into the user experience. At it’s core it’s still an IYP, but they have cleverly used some of the innate features of the iPhone to make the user experience interesting and smooth. Definitely worth checking out. “The categories needed for a yellow pages iPhone app are much fewer than those needed for a web-based IYP,” sez Erron.
Matt Myers of Shooger, a mobile local coupon app. Also looks like a nice UI for finding deals near you. You can “follow” merchants so that their offers show up on your home screen. Merchant pays based on redemption. Merchants can send out offers in “real time” so if you need to push soup right now you can send out a soup offer.
Erron Silverstein thinks coupons are probably the best way to monetize these mobile apps even though that is fraught with issues about how to get the merchant involved. Primarily he thinks the mobile apps for now are primarily for “brand lift” and getting more people who are likely to review businesses involved with the service.
Shooger works with “key resellers” to get the product into the hands of merchants.
Erron Silverstein: one reason we developed for the iPhone is because of the “cool factor”
Danny Francis: we focused on Nokia first because we are focused in Europe and Asia-Pacific
3 Response Comments
Hi Andrew, I did preface this session with “this is just a demo app we put together in the last few days”. the speaker sessions weren’t supposed to be a sell on your product (otherwise we would have shown different apps!). The sessions were just supposed to be an example of apps that could be created. We just wanted to show that you could showcase any feature (that your database could supply).
The UI is totally customizable to any thing that you want. (which if I had 30 minutes, I could have shown).
That’s why Cellcity looked at 2 apps in different languages and on different device operating systems, not on;y to show YP operators what they could do on mobiles. And importantly, that they could do it it on ANY mobile platform – iPhone, Nokia, Android, Blackberry, Java, Windows Mobile etc).
But for YP operators, the reason Cellcity showed that “basic” version is because YP operators need to sell to SMBs (local merchants), that same simplicity they currently have with the web.
To Cellcity, whats most important is that the YP sales team can sell, and that means they need a product (maybe to start with a basic product), they can understand and sell.
thanks
if the app is too pretty, who knows a) how to use it it and B0
Hey Danny, thanks for stopping by and setting the record straight re the demo nature of your app. I have rewritten the post to hopefully reflect that. That said, Yellowbot’s app was pretty slick, so I’d love to see the different apps you mentioned as well.
Absolutely, I thought YellowBots app was very cool. please feel free to drop by and visit. cheers