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BREAKING NEWS & VIEWS
Condé’s Epicurious App Floats to the Top Epicurious.com's entry into the fray of iPhone/iPod Touch mobile programs is off to a good start. Launched yesterday and already ranked as No. 7 on this morning’s chart of most popular free apps in the Lifestyle section of Apple's App Store, Epicurious’ Recipe and Shopping List is claiming thousands of downloads out of the gate. The app adds on-the-go functionality to an online catalog of more than 25,000 tested recipes in the Epricurious well. The design is task-oriented, meeting the user with a selection of six immediate needs, from a “weeknight dinner” to “party snacks.” An enormous search box invites you to plug in any term, or the user can simply follow the top-line suggested topics into a batch of hundreds of illustrated dishes that he or she can browse and then call up in greater detail. Recipes can be marked as favorites or assigned to a personal shopping list. Users can also mail recipes to others. The recipes have attractive illustrations, although the growing body of Epicurious video content has been left out of the app. The app is straightforward, convenient and functional, but ultimately it competes in an already-crowded category of mobile apps in the App Store. The AllRecipes.com app from the Reader’s Digest-owned recipe site is also popular. Kraft Foods has the most successful branded application in the app store with its iFood Assistant. The Epi app’s early popularity is a good sign for its eventual uptake. Despite its legendary innovation in distributing mobile applications, the iTunes App Store has not overcome the perennial problem for mobile content, which is discovery. The wild popularity of applications quickly created a glut of offerings that makes it difficult for any one title to float to the top. Mobile analytics experts say that the first three days of an iPhone app launch is critical to its success because that is when the app naturally shows up in the "New" category and can attract general attention. After that, marketers need to buy their way into users hearts, usually with media buys within other successful apps. Condé Nast Digital tells us that a marketing program is in place to promote the Epi app. Direct email to users will alert them of the offering as will house ads across other sites. A sweepstakes will award iPod Touches to readers every day for a month as well. If you have breaking news to share please contact Steve Smith at ssmith@accessintel.com |
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