For travelers looking to book flights, hotels and cars on the go, the Orbitz’ iPhone App has been recognized as among the best. This, along with 12 other apps, were inducted into the App Store Hall of Fame yesterday, joining 35 others that previously made the list.
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“We’re personally very thrilled to be inducted into the App Store Hall of Fame,” says Chris Brown, VP of Mobile at Orbitz. The second generation of the Orbitz app was launched this June, bringing better functionality in terms of booking all aspects of travel to the table. At that time, it was selected as an Apple Editor’s Choice app as well.
“This is the culmination of a couple of years of focusing on the mobile space, specifically on being able to build the best place to search and book through mobile devices,” Brown says. The first version of the app launched in 2010. Since then, Brown says his company’s app has become one of the most focused and fastest ways to book travel.
According to him, customers use the app mostly to book flights, but many also use it for last-minute hotel bookings, particularly in areas where they’re already traveling. Some of this may be due to special mobile-only deals, but it may also speak to travelers’ willingness to be spontaneous or make last-minute decisions. More than anything, customer feedback has led Brown to believe that the flexibility afforded by mobile bookings makes the app attractive to customers, who can book travel anywhere from their home, to the train, to the dentist’s chair. Looking ahead, Brown plans to improve the app’s search and social capabilities, while applying similar updates to Orbitz’s Android app.
At the moment, 360° view on travel the iPhone app provides hasn’t yet made it to the iPad app. In contrast, the tablet app offers users hotel bookings and deep mapping capabilities, but Brown says flights and cars will be coming to the iPad app soon.
Additionally, Orbitz was named to Glassdoor’s 50 Best Places to Work in 2013 list today, along with several other Chicago companies. Check out the list, then watch our recent interview with Orbitz CEO Barney Harford here.
Visit Orbitz’s website, check out their BIC profile, and follow them on Twitter at @Orbitz
(Screen shot via Orbitz Worldwide)
