• Quick and easy ordering – first orders can be completed in 3 minutes or less; subsequent orders take less than 30 seconds
• The ability to save previous orders, as well as ship to and bill to addresses
• Automated coupon delivery, including “first time buyer” coupons.

“Now there’s an app for Valentine’s Day heroics, as well as everyday special occasions,” commented Mark Skorlich, CEO of California Blooms. “With our new app, we are spreading the love – one iPhone user at a time. The CalBlooms App provides customers with mobile access to the perfect gift for the most important people and events in their life.”

To celebrate the launch, California Blooms will offer a 20 percent discount for all first time orders generated by the app.

• Download the California Blooms app free from the App Store
• Read a review from a happy blogger who ordered roses with this app

Delivered as a true team effort between Pervasent, Chipotle and the San Francisco based design firm Sequence, this application rose quickly into the top 20 on the iPhone app store upon release and remains a user favorite.

Anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that In App Purchases have not been a great success. Customers are not accustomed to paying from within an app, especially when they have already paid something for the app. With this change Apple will start encouraging the behavior that you download something from the App Store for free and if you like it, it’s easy to pay for an upgrade or more content. I think that will go a long way towards removing the psychological barrier against In App Purchase.

New Apps

If you were planning to create a lite and a paid version of the app it seems smarter today to make use of In App Purchase to enable the paid features of the app. Now this is not as easy as having #ifdef preprocessor switches and building two different executables. So Apple’s claim that you can “simplify your development” is a little bit disingenuous. In a subsequent post on my iPhone Development Blog I will go into more detail on how you can go about using In App Purchase to enable premium features in your app.

Existing Apps

If you sell an app where the customer can purchase additional content, e.g. an ebook reader or a comic book reader, it’s a no-brainer to now lower your price from $0.99 to free (if the $0.99 price was only there to enable In App Purchases). I’ve already seen at least one app on the App Store that has done this.

If your app is free app on the App Store, without a corresponding paid version, then you can now add In App Purchase to to your app. For example, ask you customers to pay $0.99 to get rid of the ads. All your current customers will be able to download your update for free. They can continue to use the app for free, and a few of them may take the upsell.

If your app is currently on the App Store and you charge a fee for it, with or without a corresponding lite version, then your options are not as clear.

If you make your paid app free with In App Purchase for premium features, then your current customers will suddenly lose features they have already paid for. There are several ideas being proposed in the developer forums for ways to get around this problem. But none seem to apply to all circumstances and scenarios. So unless Apple provides an official upgrade solution, this seems to be an iffy approach.

So what’s the solution? Create a new app and make it free with In App Purchase? The problem with this approach is that you then have maintain the new app as well as the old paid app. Both apps will be competing for downloads and spots on the top seller lists. And we’re still cluttering up the App Store with two apps instead of one. Hopefully Apple will dazzle us with a brilliant solution soon.

Other Considerations

Before you jump on this new opportunity you should consider some of these issues:

• If you make changes to your apps, how will that affect your current ranking on the App Store top lists?
• In App Purchase only works on 3.0 and later. If a large percentage of your customers are still on 2.x, then they will not be able to use In App Purchase to upgrade their apps. Furthermore, In App Purchase on an iPod Touch requires that the device is connected to a WiFi network.
• Apple also claims that “Using In App Purchase in your app can also help combat some of the problems of software piracy by allowing you to verify In App Purchases.” How can you benefit from this? Stay tuned for a follow-up post.

Some Unanswered Questions

• What will happen to the free vs. paid top app lists? It seems natural to assume that if you make your app free, then it will from that point on compete on the top free list, and you would lose your current spot on the top paid list. But this is just my assumption. Keep in mind that the number of downloads required for a top spot on the free app list vs. the paid list is orders of magnitude different. So if you’re moving from paid to free, then you have some catching up to do.
• Are In App Purchases included in the calculation for the Top Grossing list? (Do customers really care about the Top Grossing list, or is it just a feel-good list for developers?) Maybe this whole In App Purchase change is the first step towards combining the three top lists into one?
• For odd psychological reasons, reviews of free apps are often more harsh and less generous with stars than reviews for paid apps. (This is one reason why we don’t recommend to make your app temporarily free during a promotion. Your rating average will take a beating.) So if your app is free to begin with and you rely on In App Purchase for upgrades, then presumably reviews for the “free” and “paid” portions of the app will be intermingled.
• Will there be promo codes available for In App Purchases? If not, how are developers going to send full versions of their apps to reviewers? Do we have to regress to AdHoc builds?

The news of the launch was much anticipated and it has been picked up by several news agencies and blogs.

• Chipotle Ordering Application Now Available on the Apple App Store
• ‘Chipotle Ordering’ Back in App Store
• Chipotle Ordering iPhone app means less talking, more eating delicious burritos
• Chipotle Releases Ordering App
• Chipotle Launches iPhone Ordering App
• Chipotle iPhone app *finally* re-released after a brief vacation
• Chipotle Refries Burrito-Ordering iPhone App (AAPL, CMG)
• Chipotle iPhone app brings mobile-ordering back to AppStore
• The Case Of The Missing Burrito Comes To A Close As Chipotle Returns To The iPhone
• App Mix: Chipotle, Gangstar, Farm Idol, Bump’ny
• Chipotle iPhone App’s Super Convenient Burritos Are Going to Make Us So, So Fat

The app was developed by Pervasent in close cooperation with Chipotle’s IT department, and Sequence who did the UI design.

Here’s what people are saying about the app:

This is a great app! Whoever designed and built this deserves a lot of credit.

Amazing. I’ve been waiting for something like this and it’s better than I imagined!! if you love chipotle but hate standing in line, you HAVE to have this app!

Sweet. Great. App needs to be on every iPhone and iTouch everywhere! … Great slick design and excellently simplistic!

Love Chipotle? Must have. Simply put, it gives you everything you need in an easy to navigate menu. It’s incredibly quick and easy. Ordering and check out are a breeze.

Nailed it!!! Wow this is really top notch!!! I can not tell you just how cool it is to be able to order, pay, and walk right past the huge line and get a tasty burrito!!! Great great great!!!!

Amazing! The 7 month wait is finally over! Very easy to use, no crashes like the old version and very quick.

I’d love to know who did the first stinker and who they the replaced them with.

Best. App. Ever. What else can I say?

Awesome! Chipotle just became even better!

Want the kind of success that Chipotle is getting with their iPhone app? Don’t hesitate to contact us:
Phone: (510) 903-1001
Email: inquiries@pervasent.com

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