VINDIGO LAUNCHES LONDON PERSONAL NAVIGATOR
SERVICE FOR PALM POWERED HANDHELDS WITH THIS IS LONDON
Free service provides listings, reviews and directions to
London restaurants, pubs, shops and cinema
LondonOctober 24, 2000Vindigo, the leading
developer of personal navigation applications for handheld devices,
today announced the extension of its free mobile service to London.
Developed in partnership with This Is London (www.thisislondon.co.uk),
the Londoner's website, Vindigo brings London residents and visitors
timely, local content needed to make fast, informed decisions
about where to eat, shop and play. Available for Palm® powered
handhelds, Vindigo London includes listings for more than 1500
restaurants, 2000 bars and pubs, 1300 shops plus listings and
reviews for local cinemas.
Already available in 11 major US cities, users can download the
free application from the Vindigo website at www.vindigo.com and
www.thisislondon.co.uk. Additional European editions will be launched
in the coming months.
"We have always focused on developing technology to help high-quality
content providers deliver location-specific content to mobile
device users," said Jason Devitt, co-founder and CEO of Vindigo.
"Our partnership with This Is London is further evidence of this
powerful combination."'
Guy Saunders, Head of Business Development, This Is London, comments,
"Part of our vision at This Is London is to anticipate our customers
needs by leveraging the best and most advanced technologies available
and provide ease of access to all of our content across a variety
of platforms. We live in a mobile age. The Vindigo deal with This
Is London enables our customers to access our comprehensive, high-quality
content day or night from wherever they happen to be."
Mobile First / Wireless Later
The combination of larger screens and data stored on Palm powered
handhelds delivers a superior user experience compared to the
current generation of wireless devices. Vindigo will offer a service
for Internet-ready mobile phones later this year.
Location-Based Content Key to Achieving Success
Experts agree that location-based services will be the most important
category of applications on mobile devices. Vindigo's partnerships
with leading content providers and delivery of this type of information,
combined with its ease of use, have caught on quickly with consumers
in the United States. Its user base has grown to almost 200,000
registered users in only six months. As a testament to its popularity,
Vindigo was named the "the Best Wireless Handheld Service" in
The Kelsey Group's 2000 Local Internet Service Awards.
Point of Interest Advertising
Vindigo has also moved to the forefront of mobile advertising.
Advertisements in Vindigo can be delivered to users based on who
they are, where they are, and what they are doing. As a result
of their relevance to users, these small 3-line text ads have
received response rates in excess of 7%, compared to 0.5% for
traditional web advertising.
Eat, Shop and Play - all at your fingertips
In London, users can access content from thisislondon.co.uk or
zagat.com for restaurant and nightlife information, InShop.co.uk
for shopping information and clubplanet.com for details about
city nightlife. Vindigo also provides detailed directions to the
nearest places to eat, shop or play. The user tells Vindigo where
they are (by intersection or area) and what they want to do. Vindigo
provides walking directions to the chosen location.
· Eat - Provides listings and reviews for thousands of restaurants,
café's and coffee shops
· Shop - Finds the nearest places to buy books, music, flowers
and more
· Play - Delivers entertainment ideas with listings of bars and
clubs with a brief description of each venue. The Play section
also includes complete local listings for every film playing,
with showing times for the nearest cinema
Within each section, Vindigo also enables users to record their
own ratings, opinions, and thoughts about any restaurant, bar,
or shop for later reference.
How it Works: Download and Go…Everywhere
Vindigo's London edition is available today for users of Palm™
and Palm-compatible handheld devices, free from the Vindigo web
site (www.vindigo.com), www.thisislondon.co.uk, or by having it
beamed from a friend. Vindigo is automatically updated each time
a user syncs their handheld with their computer.
About This Is London (www.thisislondon.co.uk)
The award-winning site This Is London enables people living in
or visiting London to get the best out of the world's most exciting
city. It is the most comprehensive, active and accessible information
source for London on the internet.
About Vindigo
Vindigo creates resource-rich software for mobile devices that
allows people to explore, enjoy, and connect to the world around
them. The company's core product, also called Vindigo, transforms
Palm Inc. organisers and compatibles into personal navigators.
It delivers location-specific information about the limitless
choices of places to go and things to do in popular cities. Combining
mobility with an insider's insight and content from the most trusted
local sources - including This Is London (www.thisislondon.co.uk),
the Londoner's website, newyorktoday.com (The New York Times)
and zagat.com - Vindigo instantly adapts to a user's location
and interests. Vindigo gives busy people the ability to make quick,
savvy, lifestyle decisions about where to eat, shop, and play,
whenever and wherever they are.
Vindigo is a privately held company backed by General Atlantic
Partners LLC, Flatiron Partners, Carlin Ventures, and select private
investors. The company's headquarters are located at 259 W. 30th
Street, 4th floor, New York, NY 10001. For information, contact
Vindigo at: 001 212 741-0715 or via the Web at www.vindigo.com.
System Requirements
Vindigo is compatible with all devices based on the Palm OS™
including the Palm Professional, Palm m100, Palm III, PalmV and
Palm VII (in offline mode) series from Palm Inc., the Handspring
Visor, IBM WorkPad, SONY Clie and the Symbol Technologies SPT
1500 and 1700 series. Vindigo ensures that the information is
accurate and up to date every time a consumer syncs their device.
Minimum system requirements for the desktop component of the software
are Palm OS v2.0.5, Windows 95 or 98 (Windows NT users require
service pack 3), Netscape Navigator 3.0 or Internet Explorer 4.0,
and Palm Hotsync Manager 2.0. Vindigo takes up at least 410K of
memory on a Palm-compatible device, the exact amount depending
on the cities and options a user selects.