Design a smart car on your iphone but will you buy one?

Jun 3, 2010

Smart car designer is an iPhone app that I was asked to review here at appertunity blog and initially I had a few personal reservations…

The reservations:

1) I don’t drive (narrowly missing pedestrians at every turn on my driving test put me off)!

2) I’m not a fan of the combustion engine much like Al Gore (although please will someone tell him to give that Nobel prize to someone more deserving! It was just a slideshow!).

3) As you can tell being born in 1973 didnt stop me from becoming something of a hippy!

4) Im not a fan of branding and labels despite my Apple fetish although I do love good design.

5) Despite being a pacifist I’d happily smack Jeremy Clarkson in the face (but in an ironic twist of fate find Top Gear quite entertaining).

…so when I was asked to review this iphone app for smart I hesitated!

The pitch:

1) One of smarts selling points is that their cars are economical and environmentally better than many competitors. Tick!

2) Smart cars look cute and cool at the same time (no mean feat but I manage to pull it off so why not a car). Tick!

3) If I were a car I’d probably be a smart car rather than the gas guzzling planet killer road monster that is the urban 4×4 (I wish those people would get a grip). Tick!

Why an app for smart car?

Recently smart introduced an innovative new service – ‘BRABUS tailor made’ which as the name suggests allows you to customise your actual smart car (right down to the stitching!) before you buy!

The app is to promote this new service and it does it reasonably well.

You’ve probably noticed that advertising has become much more sophisticated at penetrating our lives as we become ‘ad blind’ to traditional advertising methods.

Mobile apps are a great way for companies to keep their products in our minds hence big names like addidas and smart bang out such apps to keep us focused on the product!

Insidious but ingenious!

However some of these apps can be quite entertaining so I’ll forgive them and fortunatly smart car designer is one of them!

Take a look at their web site for more details www.smartbrabustailormade.co.uk as even if your not planning on buying a smart the site is quite fun and the narrator is amusing!

The App:

OK now that I’ve cleansed my soul here’s my take on the app!

smart car designer iPhone application allows you to virtually create the smart of your dreams; ‘design your own’, ‘surprise me’, ‘find your inner smart’ and ‘save’.

The ‘design your own’ option allows you to instantly customise a variety of exterior and interior sections of the car to create your very own individual smart.

Introducing the Appertunity rainbow smart car!

The ‘surprise me’ option responds to movement, meaning the more vigorously it’s shook, the more your design will vary!

For fun, you can also find your ‘inner smart’ by taking a quick personality quiz to establish which smart model your most like!

You can save your designs and in a nice touch upload them to a gallery (showroom) and have them rated by other users as well as being able to rate other designs you can also share yours via email. Shame you can’t place an order for the car you just designed and get it delivered!

Finally:

Despite initial reservations I quite enjoyed playing with this app. It would be quite nice for younger children to mess around with too!

Some sound effects would have been nice (car door slamming shut when your finished designing?) and I think a non static image (spin the car round in 3D?) would have given the app more of an edge. I suspect the app designers have missed a trick with this app as there’s no Twitter or facebook upload option! Perhaps they will add this now I’ve suggested it!

The problem with such advertising apps is they are often simply seen as a vehicle (if you’ll pardon the pun) for advertising (by ad execs) and so very often lack innovating features or the ability to build on the concept. However to have a lasting effect in the app store and be effective as a long term tool for stamping a brand on our minds these apps need multiple features. In this apps case links to smarts full site a directory of smart dealers or traffic news feed may havd helped sustain this app but as it stands it will be downloaded played with and deleated shortly after!

Get the smart car designer application free from the App Store here ‘Smart car design’ iphone app for use on iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.

Let us know your thoughts on advertising apps, the iphone or the smart car with a comment!