WorldMate comes to the iPhone

WorldMate is huge in the mobile world — it first started as a Palm OS app back in 2000. Then, as today, they realized that “travel = mobile” and so it made sense to build a mobile application for travelers.

WorldMate had an innovative approach and built what was the industry’s first on-device portal with a myriad of travel content for online/offline use. WorldMate was so successful that many PDA/Smartphone makers, including Nokia, Palm, HP, and Sony Ericsson, pre-installed it on their devices. More than 3 million people use WorldMate across the Symbian, BlackBerry, Palm OS and Windows Mobile platforms. 

But that was then when making mobile apps meant being pre-installed on a pre-sale phone. The world has moved on since the launch of the iPhone to a new world of online application stores. Now, right before the expected launch of iPhone 3.0, WorldMate has come to the iPhone app store.

In many ways this is a huge validation of the iPhone platform. It’s one of the first dedicated for business applications of the kind that are huge in the BlackBerry world to make the platform jump to an app store full of, shall we say, “less serious” applications (you can see more of this attitude in the latest WorldMate Max video embedded above). 

It’s easy to see why they are coming to the iPhone: The potential market is huge; there about 40 million business travelers in the US who take over 200 million trips totaling $200 billion in sales. According to WorldMate, these “road warriors” are continually jostled around — 30%+ of flights are delayed or canceled, with meeting schedules changed all the time, and there’s a lot of stress trying to make split second decisions in unfamiliar environments with a lack of relevant information.  What’s more, these travelers spend on average $1,000 per trip.

WorldMate is the only service to that can help by effectively aggregating this disparate information.  But that is only half the battle. WorldMate further distinguishes itself in that it can take this information and turn it into solutions. For example, if your flight is delayed, WorldMate will let you know and then suggest all the alternative flights you can take instead to make it to your destination on time. 

WorldMate’s free and Gold versions have both shot to the top 20 apps in the travel category and it seems that not only is WorldMate ready for the iPhone, the iPhone is ready for WorldMate.
Ayelet Noff is a partner in Socialmedia.biz and founder and Co-CEO of Blonde 2.0, an award winning digital PR agency with branches in Boston and Tel Aviv. Contact Ayelet via The Blonde 2.0 website , email, or follow her on Twitter and Google Plus.