Yellow Pages Kenya Ltd has joined the mobile app revolution with their new travellers’ software that allows tourists to search and access basic information about places of interest on their smartphones. The software, running on the Android operating system, is scheduled to be released early 2012 and will be available to Samsung Galaxy tablet, iPhone and iPad users as a free download from their mobile application stores.
With the mobile software, travellers will be able to check out hotels with their preferred cuisines, be able to access taxi services and get to know the popular entertainment spots around the country.
Yellow Pages say their software will not need access to the internet all the time since once it is downloaded, all the content will be immediately available to the user off-line. A 5-year project in the making, the software was motivated by the realisation that most tourists relied on maps and checklists to game parks and other areas of interest that are hard to come by.
Yellow Pages argues that there is little free travel information that both local and international travellers can use to make informed decisions regarding their travel itineraries which is true because other than Magical Kenya, Enchanted Landscapes and a few others who offer free online travel information, it is very hard to come by quality content one can rely on. Yellow Pages will use a similar model to the one Enchanted Landscapes uses where they will be banking on generating revenues from advertising by sector players in the industry.
The software is yet to go through the rigorous approval process by the mobile phone manufacturers involved but these legalities and the contractual obligations that come with that, Yellow Pages hopes, will be finalised by December 2011 before the software hits the app stores in January next year.
Other than the obvious exposure participating businesses will get on the platform, there will be an added advantage of obtaining feedback from the market which will be built in to the application. This will be a big plus for both sides to learn from each other.
The content is based on Nairobi, Mombasa and Inland as locations for search, which gives the user the ability to quickly zero in on what they are looking for.
What is the likelyhood you will use this app? How beneficial will it be to you? Share your feedback by leaving a comment below.
This is good news and thank you for the updates. Kenya is really moving forward.
Can’t wait to try out this app once its launched. Would be nice to have all the travel info i need on Kenya right on my phone and at the touch of a button.
Would anyone know if this app has been released yet? Checked the android market and it is not there.
Yes Francis. The app is on Google Play Store as Postel Yellow Pages. From a rating of 3.8/5 based on 52 reviewers, i does not look like it has been a hit. The current downloads of 10,000 since 2014 are not also very impressive. Most reviewers say the offline feature they had talked much about is not working among a number of other bugs. If it is worked on properly, it seems to have great potential though.