GasBag, Ad-supported software for iPhone one of the first
GasBag displays the prices of fuel at nearby petrol stations on a map on the iPhone and shows the way to a station, but this is only a side note to its real importance.
The petrol price information is generated by users who input the petrol price for a station as they are driving by or filling up at the tank, so it relies on user input for its info.
GasBag — developed by two Australians and two Americans at Silicon Valley indie company Jamcode — has attracted 75,000 users in just over a month in the US, a sizable number for any iPhone app.
It will launch in Australia in mid-November. In the US it has signed on car manufacturers Toyota and Kia, insurer Esurance and classifieds company Cars Direct to sponsor banner ads that appear alongside petrol price information on the iPhone, making it one of the first real ad-supported software apps available for the iPhone.
Jamcode expects GasBag to generate “hundreds of thousands” in revenues within a year, and if it does so, will open the door for many more “sponsored” apps, with all the good and bad that comes with that development.
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Sounds all good, but the app keeps crashing on me while I try to do simple things like record recent purchases and keep track of mileage. I’ve notified the developer but nothing back from them. Oh, well.