Beat The Traffic Targets BlackBerries
Launches flat-fee software application
By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/23/2009 6:29:41 PM
Beat the Traffic, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company which provides real-time 3D traffic maps to TV stations such as KIRO Seattle, KITV Honolulu and WDRB Louisville, is branching beyond the big screen by creating a new software application for BlackBerry smart phones.
The “Beat the Traffic App for BlackBerry”, which is available for download to most BlackBerry devices for a one-time flat fee of $9.99, provides live traffic maps, showing traffic speeds and incidents on major routes for more than 100 cities in the USA and Canada. Live traffic cameras are accessible in 33 cities including New York City, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Toronto, Phoenix, Seattle, San Bernardino, Minneapolis, Denver, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, Providence, Nashville, Memphis, Louisville, Hartford, Buffalo, Salt Lake City, Raleigh-Durham, Tucson, Fresno, New Haven, Omaha, Bakersfield, Boise, Chattanooga, Redding, Macon, Beaverton.
Andre Gueziec, President & CEO of Triangle Software LLC, which operates Beat the Traffic, says his company has fielded requests from stations to resell the BlackBerry app on a “white-label” basis, but has no firm deals to do so. So for now Beat the Traffic is pursuing a direct-to-consumer strategy through the BlackBerry AppWorld portal. It
has sold some 17,000 downloads in the few weeks since the app quietly became available, says Gueziec.
The company will also offer a free version with a reduced feature set through the BlackBerry AppWorld, as well as through its mobile website www.BeatTheTraffic.mobi. That service doesn’t currently carry any advertising, though Guziec says it’s possible that it could eventually carry the brand of the local Beat the Traffic station or cable news channel.
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