iPhone App Store lacking news apps, but not local apps
Matt Sokoloff July 10th, 2008
I started messing with the iPhone applications today and realized that the two categories with the least amount of application are weather and news. In the news category there are 10. They fall into three categories; national news, local news and news readers. There currently is only one local news application (not counting the NY Times).
What I did notice was the abundance of local search applications. From Yelp! to Yellow Pages there is no shortage of applications to find businesses near your location. They all vary, including an application that you can shake to find a restaurant near your location.
None of the local search applications (that I could tell) were from local TV stations or Newspapers. In a world where local no longer means just news, the battle for local just went from users’ computers to their iPhones. What can local media outlets do to engage users on their mobile devices?
UPDATE: As Michael and Andrew have pointed out to me, IB launched a NowLocal application. The App for some reason wasn’t showing up on the iPhone, but you can search for it or find it on iTunes. The app gives you news from various local media outlets based on your current location.
3 Comments Add your own
1. Michael Goetz | July 10th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
There seem to be some differences between what’s on the app store that you access from the iPhone and the app store through iTunes.
For example, Internet Broadcasting released a local news aggregator app called NowLocal. It appears in iTunes, but not if you access the app store through the iPhone.
I think there are still some kinks left to be ironed out with the app store. There were 13 news apps when I checked earlier today via iTunes.
2. Mike Orren | July 10th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
There are a lot of apps that have yet to appear in the store(s). Ours went in well before the deadline and hasn’t shown up yet. They seem to be appearing in waves.
3. Anonymous | July 14th, 2008 at 10:25 am
When do those wavesbring network choice and a Dual changer?
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