As the mobile retail bandwagon rolls on, it is interesting to see that French Connection have launched a fully transactional iPhone app (meaning an app where you can buy stuff). That’s an iPhone app, not an Android, Symbian or anything else app. Whilst the rest of retail have identified the mobile web as the best delivery mechanism to reach all their customers, it seems that they were all wrong. French Connection have identified their customers as iPhone users. One of the key features of the app is that it is cloud-based, which means that updates can be easily delivered without the need to update the app itself. The app was created by mobile technology firm Answer. Besides the ability to easily manage updates, the cloud approach means that the app can be easily rolled out for other mobile platforms such as BlackBerry or Android. So, it’s interesting to see that they haven’t actually bothered to do that.

Clearly French Connection’s has found that their demographic is largely on the iPhone and not other mobile platforms. Otherwise they would have made it available for other operating systems. An interesting conclusion from a middle market fashion chain. Or is this a case of the technology tail wagging the marketing dog?