One-million downloads in less than a year. It’s not a bad mark for any app to hit, and is an even better one when it’s built for the cinema market in a single medium-sized country.
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This past week, the Ster Kinekor app recorded its one millionth download, a milestone which it claims is a first for an app across all platforms in South Africa.
Achieving the magical milestone of one million in such a short period of time is something of which we are extremely proud,” says Doug Place, Marketing Executive of Ster-Kinekor Theatres.
Since September 2012, the Ster-Kinekor app has been available for the iPhone, Android Samsung, BlackBerry and Nokia handsets as well as tablets. The film chain is now apparently looking at a Windows Phone app.
“We believe that the success of our app is as a result of its constant redevelopment and evolvement to keep up to date with new operating systems and handsets. Also, because of the constant change in the movie business, such as new titles released every week, the need to be nimble and remain relevant is immense,” Place adds.
“We have learnt over the past few months that, once you go down the app route, you need to be in a position to maintain the app and introduce new upgrades. This is a dynamic market and we need to ensure that the app we offer is at the forefront in terms of development and usability.”
The cinema chain has therefore been giving the app a fair number of tweaks, especially when it comes to functionality. It recently, for instance, launched push notification to replace SMS, apparently to ensure that users receive “relevant and personalised notifications regarding new movie releases”.
It claims that the advanced functionality also enables users to update their calendars with their movie bookings, and “broadcast to their favourite social network sites which movies they are most looking forward to viewing”.
“The positive reaction to the Ster-Kinekor app to date has been extremely encouraging, and the million downloads is testament to it offering a great user experience. There are a number of exciting new developments in the app pipeline that will be rolled out over the next few months. All we can say is… watch this space!” Place says.
