Mobile destination apps: Lonely Planet's cautionary story
Skift Take
Destination content and guides in mobile are still very hard, no one model has broken out, and a mix of apps targeting locals -- through utility -- and travelers -- through content -- seems to be the way to go. Larger players like Lonely Planet and others are now focusing on ebooks and mobile as a marketing channel.
Ed's note: The reporting on this story was done in between our exclusive on LP's sale and announcement on its sale yesterday.
Lonely Planet's Brice Gosnell is a busy man these days. As Lonely Planet's vice president of publishing in the Americas, he's currently reviewing the guidebook brand's digital publishing strategy, and the economics of mobile apps and ebooks are not making it an easy task.
"With mobile, you have to be constantly evolving. What we have to date makes it more difficult to pivot," he said.
Lonely Planet's mobile portfolio is saddled with apps that Gosnell calls "historical products" that are difficult to support financially. Lonely Planet publishes free apps for iOS, Android and Nokia. Users can buy content in the app, ranging from guidebooks that cost about $4 to phrase translators. It also publishes ebooks for Kindle, Nook a
