I’m often asked why INRIX Traffic is in the “navigation” category of the various mobile app stores. My reply: “Our 100+ million drivers navigate to home and work typically 5 days per week”.
Think about it for a minute. Every time you jump into your car you “navigate”. Often you navigate to the places you know how to drive to, like home, work, airport, mall, and the stadium. Sometimes you navigate to places you don’t know how to drive to, like the infamous Starbucks use case we often hear. If you examine the various app sub categories within the “Navigation” app category, you will see three big groups or classes of apps: Turn-by-turn apps, Local Search apps and Traffic Apps. The image highlights just a few of the over 7,000 navigation applications that people can download.
Of the 7,000+ iPhone apps, its interesting to note that over 800 of them are Traffic apps. OK, so now the next question. What’s the difference between these app categories? Great question.
All of these apps help you “navigate”, but they have different use cases. Just as instant messaging and email are different use cases of “internet text delivery”. Turn-by turn apps typically include address search, voice instructions and detailed micro navigation maneuvers. Local Search apps typically include user reviews and store hours. (It’s interesting to note that Home Depot is the 8th most search mobile brand. Not for finding how to navigate to Home Depot, but to ensure the store hours reflects its open or closed). Finally Traffic apps typically include real time traffic flow, incidents, forecasts, cameras, and the like. Here is a simple chart that attempts to highlight the important attributes of the various apps within these 3 big sub categories.
OK, so what does all of these mean? It means that INRIX Traffic, as are all the Traffic apps, in the right category being inside the larger “Navigation” mobile category. By the way, thanks to your support, INRIX Traffic is the #1 Traffic app in terms of both overall downloads and active monthly members (source: comScore) in numerous countries including the US, Canada, France and the like.
Happy navigating.
Kevin
———–
Kevin Foreman, VP, Mobile Applications