Originally Posted by
stencil
You're joking, right? Do you know how many people use iPhones? Using a well-done app is way easier and quicker than trying to do things via browser.
iPhones and iPads (and other smartphones and tablets) are real tools (as opposed to "toys") that real people use while traveling, when it matters most that we have access to our itineraries.
I am
not joking. I own both an iPhone and an iPad and find both to be very valuable devices.
Think about what you would primarily use an airline app for? You'd use it to view flight status, check in, check for flight updates, review itineraries, both current and upcoming, and potentially purchase tickets. Basically, all transactions that require communication back to "the mothership". About all you'd use the app for in an "offline" mode is reviewing cached flight schedules and possibly viewing static content like seatmaps.
Hence, the effort being spent to develop an iPhone app is stupid and wasted, especially in Delta's case. As I said, if Delta had a robust, functional, platform-cognizant and platform-agnostic website, they essentially wouldn't NEED an iPhone app or an iPad app. They could simply do a web clipping (which, to the end user would look exactly like an app).
Thanks for playing.