Speaking Sensis

Mobile phone apps – everyone is talking about them and everyone wants them.  Whether it be for playing games or finding a business, service or friend close by, people are jumping on the app band wagon and for good reason.

Apps, short for application software, add an increasing array of functions to mobile phones. At Sensis, our Yellow Pages® and White Pages® iPhone apps were some of the first on the Australian market, with the Yellow Pages® iPhone app being downloaded more than 300,000 times since its launch in August last year. The iPhone app has so far connected more than a quarter of a million people with businesses, and boosted Yellow Pages® Mobile usage by more than 50%.

And on the back of that success we have launched the Yellow Pages® Android app, which is now ready to be downloaded.   

To get the app on your Android phone, simply visit the Android Market and search for ‘Yellow Pages® Australia’ or ‘White Pages® Australia’ or follow these links from your Android phone:

• Yellow Pages® – market://details?id=au.com.sensis.mobile.android.yellow

• White Pages® – market://details?id=au.com.sensis.mobile.android.white

The free apps connect Android-enabled mobile phone users to all the helpful information that can be found at Yellow Pages® Mobile and White Pages® Mobile but enhanced with some features that leverage the enhanced capabilities of the Android platform like:

• Auto-location
  The GPS capability of Android devices allows you to search for businesses close to you. This means you don’t have to type in the location when you do a business search.

• Save to favourites and recent searches
  Create a list of favourite businesses within the app and include notes against listings i.e. “Café Grotto – great coffee, friendly service”. There’s also a list of your most recent searches.

• Auto-suggest categories
  When you start keying text for a business type search, suggestions are presented, meaning you don’t have to type the whole word if there is a match.

While the first Android devices were launched in Australia in early 2009, it will be another 12 months before they really take off.  At the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Richard Fink, Director Device Management & Operations at Telstra, announced  that the first Android handset, the HTC Desire, will be due in next month. 

“We have decided to include Android smartphones on our device roadmap now because there is real momentum building behind the platform. There is a growing range of excellent handsets to choose from, real maturity in the operating system and an ecosystem of around 20,000 apps (growing rapidly) — which gives customers unprecedented freedom to decide how their mobiles look and what they do.”