It comes as no surprise that Disney has started to embrace Apple’s iPhone. After all, Steve Jobs is a member of Disney’s board of directors as well as Disney’s largest shareholder. Considering the iPhone’s success, Disney should be investing in iPhone applications to promote and sell their products to iPhone users. As of May 14, 2010, Disney is responsible for 28 iPhone applications. Of these 28, twelve apps are free, including “lite” versions of paid applications. The Disney applications cover many different areas, from advertising for movies to a news app from ABC. Let’s take a look at some of these apps.
First up is the Disney app. A free app, it includes games, music, videos and much more. Since it is the Disney app, it sounds like a replacement for the Disney.com website; however, it is more of an entertainment app. It does contain a news section, however. Weighing in at 108 MB, it’s certainly large as far as iPhone apps are concerned. The app is full of graphics, sounds and special features such as photo frames (insert a photo from your iPhone into a frame, then save or email the result). The trivia game is especially fun and has many categories to choose from including Theme Parks, Animated Films, and Disney Music.
A few Disney apps promote Disney movies, such as Bayou Beats, a The Princess and the Frog rhythm game and the Up app. Designed as another means to advertise a movie, the apps provide an entertaining game as well as some bonus features such as character videos. To be honest, Bayou Beats isn’t the greatest rhythm game, but it’s free and good promotion for The Princess and the Frog.
Disney took a slightly different approach with the recent Alice in Wonderland movie and released an iPhone game titled Alice in Wonderland – An Adventure Beyond the Mirror for $4.99. In addition, Disney released a “Lite” version specifically aimed to promote the movie, the full iPhone game, and the Wii and DS video games. The game is fairly well done, and playing unlocks wallpapers and other items. Additional items in Alice’s journal can be unlocked by visiting the Alice in Wonderland theme park attractions such as the Mad Tea Party and the Alice in Wonderland ride at Disneyland.
In addition to the 28 Disney apps, ESPN also has a number of its own apps that aren’t listed under Disney. These include an ESPN Radio app and my personal favorite, ESPN ScoreCenter. This app not only lets you look at scores for most sports (college baseball is not included for some reason), it will push score updates to your phone. The user chooses which scores should be pushed to the phone. If I’m out running errands, ESPN ScoreCenter will keep me informed of LSU, Saints, Hornets and Astros scores. The app also has a scrolling news ticket at the bottom similar to the ESPN Bottom Line on TV with the latest in sports news.
These are just a few examples of apps Disney has in the store. A Radio Disney app, another rhythm game called Fireworks, and ABC News are a few more. However, of all the apps Disney has, not a single app is specifically dedicated to the Disney Parks. Of course, tons of third-party apps fill this void including TouringPlans.com’s Lines and the eTicket apps for Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Disney does have a mobile application, but it is for Verizon phones only. The Verizon app, called Mobile Magic, is a subscription app that gives current information for both Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Mobile Magic costs $9.99 for 180 days of usage. Perhaps to fill some of the void and to sidestep contractual obligations to Verizon, there are mobile websites for both Walt Disney World and Disneyland, but isn’t quite as nice as Mobile Magic. At this point, your best option is to purchase a third-party app. Lines uses TouringPlans.com’s massive amount of wait times data to predict wait times at attractions, and the eTicket apps contain just about every piece of information you can imagine for Walt Disney World or Disneyland (separate versions for each resort).
In my opinion, the current state of Disney iPhone apps is good but could be better. Apps of many different types serve Disney well, but the lack of an iPhone Disney Parks app is a glaring omission. However, Disney may be waiting for an exclusivity agreement to run out with Verizon before releasing an iPhone parks app. For the savvy Disney fan, a third-party app may still work better for the parks, but an official app will be a good source of promotion for the masses.
Be sure to check out more great Disney blog articles at the Disney Blog Carnival’s fourth edition!
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