Originally Posted by
jimrpa
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.
Why are you assuming people use it in offline mode? I would think just the opposite - while they're away from their desktops and traveling, checking flights, checking in from hotel and office lobbies, contacting "the mothership."
That's exactly what makes the app valuable. It normalizes the information in a steady interface that isn't loading promotions, banners, and other things that are meant for the desktop experience.
It's all hitting the same API, so I don't see this as a waste of resources at all. More and more people are using mobile devices to access this info, and creating a platform-agnostic site would limit their ability to proper harness the desktop experience.
I welcome the ability to do what I need to do while mobile on the iPhone. If you think iPhone apps are a waste of time, have a look-see at how well they're doing and how they've changed companies like Netflix, MLB, and even banking.
I'd hate to end up with a vanilla, non-optimized HTML version of Delta that's meant to work for the lowest common denominator.
Oh, and thank YOU for playing.