#1 Grendel: ABS iPhone Application 12/02/2010 18:03:14

Given the announcement of the iPad I would hope that any App for the iPhone might also have an iPad iteration with additional capabilities.

#2 Clea: ABS iPhone Application 07/01/2010 16:43:34

Sounds like a good start. Are you planning to have something for phones and pda's running the windows mobile or symbian os too?

#3 Dongwen: ABS iPhone Application 21/12/2009 17:21:31

I'm working on ABS data everyday and doing some analysis and charts based on that. After work, I am also an iphone application developer, so I'm really interested in this iphone app. It would be the most valuable app on my iphone.

If we could customise our own catologue subscription list, and get all the future release dates for that list, that would be good for my current job.

Umn....there would be some tax benefits for people who are working with ABS data and have an iphone at the same time...

#4 David: ABS iPhone Application 19/12/2009 07:22:08

As a secondary teacher, I applaud this move strongly. I use my iPhone to have various information sources on tap within my classroom, including the CIA's World Factbook, dictionaries, thesauruses, the complete works of Shakespeare ...

OK, I'm a geek and a nerd too, but in all seriousness, to have portable access to ABS data would be a genuine boon. Go for it!

#5 AJ: ABS iPhone Application 15/12/2009 14:45:02

What do your web stats say? how many visitors do you get from iPhones or Mobile devices? The trend there should help you make an informed decision.

The numbers of iPhone users show this is not just a passing fad. Im constantly disappointed at sites that arent mobile optimised if nothing else.

Unsure if Apple let you charge for subscriptions however, so segmenting data charges is questionable.

#6 Vindaya: ABS iPhone Application 14/12/2009 11:31:18

Great work! ABS is on the right track and looking forward to the future.

Consider the following facts with regard to ever increasing popularity of the smart phones, led by iPhone and its potential in changing the way people do things.

+ There are 4.1bn phone users worldwide;

+ According to Gartner, smart phone sales grew by 27% in the second quarter and would account for 70% of the all phones sold in Europe in 2012;

+ New Nanoscale technology for memory storage would make smart phone devices more compact, will also have longer battery life and run smart applications making the devices more and more popular;

+ Dell’s founder, Michael Dell, who previously ruled out ever entering the mobile phone business because Nokia’s 40pc market share would be too hard to crack, has recently confirmed long-running rumors that Dell plans to launch a smart phone running on Google’s Android operating system.

All this would mean, smart phones will outsmart laptops in the very near future and people would find lifting the lid of their laptop needs too much effort.

So smart apps is the way to go. Well done!

#7 SeanM: ABS iPhone Application 30/11/2009 09:35:24

Great idea, if you are looking at creating an iPhone app, I strongly recommend you spend some time checking out www.daringfireball.com and look at what John Gruber has to say about design and simplicity.

Canberra also has a very strong UX development community and is the home of the growing Gov2.0 and open data forums (although as is true of all the internet, location is not the issue it once was).

This is an opportunity for the ABS to not only be a leading Govt info provider in Australia, but in the world. The standards you set here could well be the basis for other statistics organisations the world over.

Also consider the leverage that the stronger geolocational features of the iPhone 3Gs might enable. Possibly you could derive an income stream for access to certain datasets that way.

#8 BIll: ABS iPhone Application 13/11/2009 08:26:47

Hi,

I encourage your efforts to get data in the hands of more people, well done. I would most definitely use this.

Could I suggest you consider apps such as Bloomberg "Stocks" app, great architecture and design. Very functional interface

1. News 2. Markets. 3. "My Stocks" 4. Stock Finder

For ABS, this could be 1. [News] i.e Social Trends, New Releases etc 2. [Markets] i.e Regional Trends or your current categories i.e Unemployment, CPI, HPI, GDP etc 3. [My Stocks] i.e " MyABS" This should include the Postcode/GPS link but I would also make queries available by LGA and SLA. Some comparison would be good. The ability to personalise this would be critical 4. [Stock Finder] i.e Trend Finder - This could be by industry, postcode,place etc..

The Bloomberg app does CURRENT [free and subscriber options] NEWS and CHANGE OVER TIME *VERY, VERY* well. The use of the tilt in the iPhone app to move from a text/numeral view to a graphic/indicator view is very neat and intuitive [in my judgement]- I have no association with BB in any way..

I would also like to see map/visualisation integration.

The power of the ABS data is accepted, but your challenge is to get a combination of the strategic data [National/Regional] combined with the tactical data [ Regional/Local] so that users can have CONTEXT of PLACE. This would MOST DEFINITELY set the app apart from a simple, flat "key hole" model

I would also concur with requests for public API's as above. These are the tools needed for contextualised public policy and place-based planning.

I see a very large existing need from many "place-based" Govt initiatives at both State and Federal Level. You would [do] have a HUGE ready-made audience.

I would want to see "Strategically Local" data that can be in "trend" form [Change over time]

Look forward to a Beta.

Cheers and good luck.

Bill

#9 Chris: ABS iPhone Application 12/11/2009 09:58:02

All I can say is - TELL ME WHERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS!!

This is a great concept and a would be a fantastic tool across a range of professions.

I agree that time series graphs would also be helpful as well as possibly localised/region data??

As a constant user of ABS data and iPhone application fan - i see this has a lot of potential

#10 Robert: ABS iPhone Application 11/11/2009 17:27:31

Nice work! It would save the user taps to present the current figures on the first Key Indicators screen, while retaining the ability to drill down to see more detail. Further drill-down could eventually access the relevant time series.

I second the request for simple JSON (preferably) or XML APIs providing this and other data.

Re native vs web app, the biggest advantage of native apps is visibility - there is no focal point for discovering web apps like the App Store for native apps.

Happy to provide advice on the iPhone SDK if needed.

#11 Andrew: ABS iPhone Application 11/11/2009 15:58:03

A public XML/JSON/REST api for getting statistics is what you need. iPhone apps are just a passing fashion.

#12 Keith: ABS iPhone Application 10/11/2009 12:07:50

Agree with the others here that a good mobile optimised site with webkit/HTML5 enhancements will meet the requirements. A good reason to use an app would be to add good charting capabilties and possibly embedding the data in the app so its really fast to use. This is the approach mogeneration took with our Gov 2.0 #gov2au app Food Watch NSW. All the data is in the app for speed, but it can still download updates over the internet

#13 Daniel: ABS iPhone Application 09/11/2009 12:52:32

Looks like a great starting point.

One thing I would like to see are graphs of the statistics over time for things like CPI, HPI etc

I would certainly use an application like this.

Cheers

Dan

#14 Rob: ABS iPhone Application 09/11/2009 12:43:05

Hi Julia, this looks like a great start. I'd also strongly encourage you to make this summary information available as an iPhone/webkit friendly website. And also as a Plain Old Mobile website. Both of these should really be available directly from { Link } or at least { Link } with automatic device detection.

NOTE: We've release some pretty well tested device detection code as Open Source software and we'd be happy to show you how it works.

It would also be great if these simple summary statistics were available as a basic JSON or XML API so people could quickly and easily implement widgets that provided similar functionality. We're quite active within the #gov2au #opendata movement in Australia and I think this sort of API is an important stepping stone.

Best of luck with your project and if there's any way we can help you or just provide more structured feedback please let me know.

#15 Adi: ABS iPhone Application 09/11/2009 12:23:25

While I think this is a fantastic idea, there is nothing in this mockup that makes me believe that it should be an application rather than an mobile optimised webpage.

Why would a webpage be just as good?

1. it could be used on multiple devices.

2. you could push out updates without waiting for Apple's approval

With things like geolocation being implemented in Webkit's html5 most of the benefits of a native iPhone app are moot.

What might be a good reason to have a native app would be to leverage some of the visualisation work that Jarryd has been doing and display it on the iPhone. But even that might not be necessary (see this example of great lookinh browser based visualisation: { Link })

#16 Damian: ABS iPhone Application 09/11/2009 12:23:11

I think this is fantastic!