This is topic Theatre app in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 09-22-2013, 05:40 PM:
 
I just installed the "Co-op app" on my phone which provides coupons and so on at the local grocery store, gas station and lumberyard that are apparently available only via the app. You can view this week's flyer, too, and if you're on the road it will use the GPS to locate the nearest Co-op stores and gas stations.

I just downloaded it for the coupons, though.

Now I'm wondering if there would be any point to writing an app for my theatre. It would be an excuse to learn to write a simple android app, if nothing else, but all that I can think of to put into it would be a button to tell you what's currently playing. Since that's already on my website, I don't see what would be gained by writing an app to do the same thing.

Do any of you folks have an app for your theatre? If so, what does it do other than just tell you what's playing?
 

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Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 09-22-2013, 06:38 PM:
 
Maybe you can write an app that determines their GPS location and when it matches your theater, it automatically shuts off their phone? *

* Actually, you can't do that, unless you're both Google and Apple at the same time.
 

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Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 09-22-2013, 10:07 PM:
 
Frank, I don't know about a full blown app, but there are things you can do to make a mobile version of your web site that fits nicely on a phone screen and is easier to navigate when you're not using a mouse.

A couple things I've done on our mobile page:
-Create a button link to dial the recording number <a href="tel:19999999999"><img></a>
-Button link to map/directions
-Condensed movie listing to make it easier to view on a smart phone
-Collapsible menu for easier navigation.

I actually wound up making a full blown mobile version of the site where all the pages are formatted differently from the main page to improve readability on a smart phone.

Lakeport Auto Movies Mobile Page

I also added code to the main page to automatically redirect mobile users to the mobile page, and created the m.lakeportautomovies.com sub-domain.
 

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Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 09-29-2013, 04:11 PM:
 
Andromo
 

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Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 09-29-2013, 04:17 PM:
 
$25/month minimum to use their doodad, apparently. Why not install the Android SDK (free) and do it yourself.
 

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Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 09-29-2013, 06:13 PM:
 
Hmm. I've never paid them a dime and have used them to make several apps that are used by hundreds of people currently. Maybe they changed their terms of service since then..
 

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Posted by Matt Fields (Member # 3211) on 09-29-2013, 07:45 PM:
 
I built an iPhone app for my theatre and have started on an Android app, but my Java sucks and its been slow going.

Anyways, on our iPhone app you can: Purchase tickets, get showtimes, see what is coming soon, watch trailers and read movie summaries, check the Special Events calendar, get the Free Summer Movie schedule, get driving directions to the theatre, and get in contact with the theatre through phone, email, or social media.

The app works with RTS, but you have to pay an additional fee through them for additional interface. The additional service with RTS also has movieticket.com support so you can sell tickets through movietickets.com. You can also use movietickets.com to send Cinema Source your movie schedule.

Here the iTunes link for our app:

Tri City iPhone app
 

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Posted by Michael Hickl (Member # 7585) on 10-14-2013, 04:37 PM:
 
My Theater has an app similar to the one Matt described. My friends seem to like it, and I like since my friends aren't always asking me about work
 

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Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 12-28-2013, 07:35 PM:
 
Theatre app
 

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Posted by Manny Montes (Member # 5639) on 12-30-2013, 11:20 PM:
 
Nice app Frank, simplistic and gives everyone the info they need for your theater
 

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Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 12-31-2013, 12:51 AM:
 
Couldn't think of anything else to put in it, actually.

It's rather surprising to me what a big splash it has made in town now that I have made it available. My major purpose for making it was to learn a bit about Android programming; an app for my theatre gave me a good excuse to play with that. I sent an announcement email out to the people on my mailing list on Sunday night, put a link on my website, and printed a QR Code to post on my front door. There have been a fair number of installs since then so I guess someone has noticed.

I have discovered that some people don't know what kind of a phone they have. My QR Code sign clearly says "Melville Theatre App for Android". I was standing in line at the Coop grocery store this afternoon and the guy behind me said, "Hey, I can't get your app to work. Can you tell me what's wrong with it?" and then he showed me an iphone. Yup, that's your problem right there.
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-31-2013, 12:08 PM:
 
Is iPhone not as popular as Android in your part of the world? Around here about 80% of people seem to be iPhone users.
 

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Posted by Terry Lynn-Stevens (Member # 7349) on 12-31-2013, 12:14 PM:
 
You mean IOS not iPhone? Android dominates the market share vs IOS. There are far more Android phones than there are IOS phones.
 

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Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 12-31-2013, 01:21 PM:
 
Frankly, up to this point I have never really noticed how many iphones there are around here versus anything else. Now maybe I'll have a reason to pay a bit more attention. I know that all of the kids seem to drag a phone around with them 24/7, but never looked any further than that.

I know that a friend of mine who owns the cell phone store down the street always tries to steer his customers to purchase an Android phone, though he'll sell you an iphone if that's what you really want.

I gave him a copy of my theatre app qr code to post in his store yesterday and while he was putting it up he said, "I'm really going to enjoy telling those iphone people that they can't have this app."
 

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Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 12-31-2013, 04:02 PM:
 
Without sending this discussion into an Android vs. iOS war, one should be careful when looking at statistics regarding the two mobile operating systems.

This is especially important when considering which of the two phones to support, since the OS is loaded onto phones as well as tablets, and I've heard that some Android installations report themselves as phones even when they are set-top devices. If I recall correctly, it was some sort of USB Chromecast-like stick that was a media player of sorts that is very popular in Asia, and all those devices are reported as phones in some reports.

It's anecdotal evidence, but on The BigScreen Cinema Guide, the split between iPhones and all the various Android-powered phones in my report for December comes to a 3:1 ratio, respectively. Your results may vary.
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-31-2013, 09:41 PM:
 
Yeah, maybe it's due to dealer preferences, carrier issues and what-not, but around here at least 3/4 of the phones I see (and I see a ton of them clutched in the hands of teenagers going to the movies) are iPhones. Most of my best friends have iPhones, heck even my mother in law has one. We went to New Year's Eve dinner tonight with 10 people at our table and all of the phones at table except one were iPhones.

I can bash Apple with the best of 'em but the iPhone seems pretty ubiquitous.

As always, "your mileage my vary!"
 

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Posted by Manny Montes (Member # 5639) on 01-01-2014, 03:18 AM:
 
another issue with iphone vs android is that for smaller theaters it may not be worth it to make an iphone app as you would either have to outsource or pay the $99/year fee to be an iOS developer. Not sure if this would be worth it for many.
 

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Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 01-01-2014, 09:12 AM:
 
Hmm...lets see. I own or use regularly:

Android phone (Galaxy S4)
iPad
iMac
PC Desktop
2x PC Laptops (one running WinXP and one running Win7 Pro)

So on the mobile front...I'm covered either way. I've found that the same Apps don't run the same on the various OSes....I definitely prefer the iOS on some (e.g. Logmein) and the Android app on others (e.g. Teamviewer).

I would think for a theatre app, the goal would be reaching mass appeal to get people to just use your app to know what you are playing and when (and possibly suggest gift ideas and such)...as such, I wouldn't want to excluded either of the two major platforms. You would definitely be excluding a significant percentage of the potential market.

Note...in our house, the cel phones are 2 androids and 1 apple. People buy what they buy for whatever reason and those reasons will vary with the individual and what they do or like.
 

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Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 01-01-2014, 09:33 AM:
 
The iPhone is the top seller of handsets, but Android has a far more commanding share of the OS market vs iOS because there's crap tons of handsets made by multiple manufacturers at every price point using the Android system. if you want to play the app game, you're insane to not support both.

And when that one guy complains that you're not supporting Windows Phone or BlackBerry, laugh your ass off in their face and send them away in shame.

Also, if you keep your website simple enough for phone browsers, you're GTG already and don't have to mess with apps in the first place. Some of us like to keep our phones clean and don't see the point in having an app that provides no benefit over a website.
 

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Posted by Philip Jones (Member # 6677) on 01-01-2014, 10:25 AM:
 
We've had an app since about August but I'm not really sure of the benefit of it at the moment. I think it is the way things are going though so it's nice to have with regards to the future.

We have it on both Android and iOS but not sure if we'll keep up the iOS one when it comes up for renewal.

Here it is if anyone is interested: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appsbuilder492403
 

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Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 01-01-2014, 10:31 AM:
 
What renewal? You pay a one-time US$25 registration fee to Google to sign up as a "google developer" and you're set up for life. There is no limit that I can see on how long or how many apps you can have posted on Google Play.

Edit: I just re-read your message and I see that you meant renewing the iphone version, not the android version. Yeah, that could be a bummer. I've had a few people ask me why I don't have an iphone version of my app and my answer so far is, "I don't have a mac and as far as I know you need one to do iphone development". The rest of that story is that I'm simply not interested in doing anything on iphone, of course.
 

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Posted by Philip Jones (Member # 6677) on 01-01-2014, 10:35 AM:
 
On the iOS (apple) one I meant. You have to pay about $100 a year.

I know the Android one is free after the initial sign up fee.

Edit - just seen your edit
 

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Posted by Chris Daigle (Member # 7347) on 01-01-2014, 10:44 AM:
 
We use a company called BMobilized. They basically take your website and their software automatically creates a mobile version that supports virtually every type of phone out there. You can customize the new mobile site to change colors, add or remove things that may be different from your regular site and never have to worry about it again. We've been using it for a couple of years and haven't had any issues with it. Took me about 1/2 hour to set it up initially and now when people log into our website with a mobile device they get re-directed to the mobile version. It costs us about $15 per month but for someone who doesn't have the ability to create my own apps its been worth the cost.
 

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Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 01-01-2014, 11:18 AM:
 

quote: Sam Graham

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Also, if you keep your website simple enough for phone browsers, you're GTG already and don't have to mess with apps in the first place. Some of us like to keep our phones clean and don't see the point in having an app that provides no benefit over a website.

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