We are having fun releasing our new smartphone app. On its first day on the iTunes App Store, Rick Steves Audio Europe climbed to about #12 on the list of free travel apps. (The competitor in me is dying to crack the top ten.) Because our app is so easy to use, so full of helpful information, and entirely free, we have high hopes to make it a standard pack-along for any thoughtful Europe-bound traveler.
My initial blog entry about the app got piles of encouraging comments from iPhone and iPod Touch users…and just as many people asking when it will be available for the Android platform. The people who designed our iPhone app are busily working on the Android version, which they expect to have ready within a month.
This weekend, the LA Times is including our app on its list of top Europe travel apps. And when something appears in the LA Times, it pops up in other papers across the USA. We’re pulling out all the publicity stops to help this app get into electronic orbit.
While the app’s major feature is all of our audio tours covering the big museums, palaces, and neighborhood walks in London, Paris, Venice, Florence, and Rome (with Athens coming up in a couple of weeks), there are also dozens of interviews in the country-specific playlists that will add to your enjoyment of your next trip. And in case you haven’t noticed, the app also has a playlist called “Notable Travelers,” with a collection of fascinating conversations I enjoyed with people such as Greg Mortenson, Salman Rushdie, David Sedaris, Tony Wheeler, Arthur Frommer, Elizabeth Gilbert, Frances Mayes, and Bill Bryson.
Please let your traveling friends know about this, and check it out yourself if you can. This app is just a wonderful way to organize interviews from our public radio program archive and other audio files to make sure this trip-enhancing info is easy to use and access in a way that fits your next itinerary.
Any plans for the app on Blackberry Torch? Please??
What are the implications of this canned spiel for local guides?
Hmm, I would say that local guides can address questions, react to changes in local conditions, personalize the tour. On the other hand, Rick`s audio tours will be really helpful for those who don`t have a local tour guide or maybe are slipping out for some touring while on a business trip. I`m betting that there is room for both.
Also, here is a plea for the app on Android
When I travel I like to have a guide for the really big sites that have so much info you would have to study for years, but that is why we don`t normal go on tours because we don`t want to spend our whole vacation day after day listening to the same person talk. We like to just be a part of the place we are in. Having these appts would keep you very independent.
Don`t forget about us Blackberry users! We want the app too! :-)
We found your audio-guides fantastic during our last trip to Italy. They made art museums accessible to us, complete art-neophytes. Look forward to the new App.
Rick, To help with your new App product . Help with text-marketing campaigns! E-mail me and I will send over the web-site with yep-text. Marilyn