Zillow Launches First Mobile App for Rentals – MultifamilyBiz.com
SEATTLE, WA – Zillow, Inc, the leading real estate information marketplace, today announced the launch of Zillow® Rentals for Android™ App, the company’s first dedicated rentals app, optimized for renters who need to make decisions quickly.
The Zillow Rentals for Android App is the only rentals app that allows users to access Rent Zestimates® – Zillow’s estimated rent prices on more than 100 million U.S. homes and apartments. Additionally, the app allows rental shoppers to:
- Compare and contrast favorite homes on a side-by-side list, a rental app feature exclusive to Zillow.
- Draw one or more boundaries around neighborhoods to narrow a search by geography.
- Use Android’s voice search capabilities to quickly search for-rent homes in an area.
- Quickly browse color-coded results organized by time on market, so renters know which homes are new to the market and which have already been viewed.
- Automatically receive on-screen notifications when new rental homes matching search criteria hit the market, with no login or sign-up required.
- Contact landlords by phone or email instantly. These properties are automatically added to the renter’s list of favorites with a time stamp to help keep track of when landlords were contacted.
“Renters shop differently from buyers and look at many homes quickly, in specific locations, in a short amount of time,” said Jeremy Wacksman, vice president of consumer marketing and mobile at Zillow. “The Zillow Rentals for Android App was created specifically to address their needs by organizing listings in an easily-accessible way and allowing them to shop for the right home on location, in the neighborhood where they want to live.”
This is Zillow’s 10th mobile app, adding to the most popular suite of mobile real estate apps with dedicated apps available on every major platform. Zillow’s early investment in mobile is fueling the company’s growth. In March, 155 million homes were viewed on Zillow mobile apps – that’s 57 homes per second.
Zillow Mobile’s full suite includes: Zillow on iPad®; Zillow iPhone® App; Zillow Mortgage Marketplace iPhone App; Zillow Android App; Zillow Mortgage Marketplace Android App; Zillow Android Tablet App; Zillow BlackBerry® App; Zillow Kindle® Fire App; Zillow Windows® Phone 7 App.
Zillow Rentals for Android App is free to download, and is available in the Google® Play store starting today:
Search for “Zillow” in the Google Play store, or find it in the Lifestyle category.
Zillow (NASDAQ: Z) is the leading real estate information marketplace, providing vital information about homes, real estate listings and mortgages through its website and mobile applications, enabling homeowners, buyers, sellers and renters to connect with real estate and mortgage professionals best suited to meet their needs. In March 2012, more than 32 million unique users visited Zillow’s websites and mobile applications. Zillow, Inc. operates Zillow.com®, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, Zillow Mobile, Postlets® and Diverse Solutions. The company is headquartered in Seattle.
TJ Goulet has been a leader in sales and marketing for almost 20 years. His background includes both entrepreneurial endeavors and nationally recognized achievement with a Fortune 500 Company. He entered the local search and coupon industry in 2005, when he launched his first directory and coupon portal. TJ's expertise is in utilizing current technologies and marketing platforms to increase sales productivity across a broad range of products and services.
Since 2009, Mobile Internet Usage Has Doubled Every Year
Since 2009, Mobile Internet Usage Has Doubled Every Year
The growth of the mobile Web is on a steady rise. While pundits throw around words like “explosive” and “outrageous” the more precise word is probably “consistent.” According to analytics firm StatCounter, users accessing the Web through mobile devices has almost doubled every year since 2009. In its latest report, StatCounter says that global Internet usage through mobile devices rose to 8.5%, nearly doubling the 2011 figure of 4.3%.
StatCounter’s analytics only include cellphones, excluding tablets from the mix. The global leader in mobile Web use is Nokia at nearly 40% of usage. The firm believes that Nokia’s global dominance is due to high penetration in emerging markets like India. Apple is a strong No. 2 globally, while leading use in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Since 2009, the rate of mobile Internet use has consistently doubled every year. See the chart on the right. The global numbers reaffirm what we already know: the use of the mobile Web is permeating the everyday existence of people around the world. Developers and business can look at the numbers and be assured that the decision to go “mobile first” will eventually be the right choice. Companies that have built the foundation for success on the mobile Web now will be the future leaders of the space, from advertising to software deployment and every space in between.
While Nokia is the global leader, the strength of Apple is clear. With about 28.76% of use, Apple nearly doubles the next closest competitor, Samsung, by about 14%. If you take all the Android OEMs listed (Samsung, HTC, LG, Sony, Motorola and Sony Ericsson and “Google”), the Android OEMs make up about 24.72% of global mobile Internet usage.
Research In Motion fell about 10% from Jan. 2011 to Jan. 2012 from 18.15% to 8.3%. That is indicative of the global fall of BlackBerry sales and usage. In the U.K., BlackBerry remains the No. 2 device, behind Apple.
In North America, Apple has an astonishing lead in mobile Internet use, with 59.11%. No other OEM comes close, with Samsung holding the No. 2 spot at 11.43% and RIM third at 10.06%.
It is difficult to ascertain Apple’s dominance of the mobile Internet access. For most of 2011, Android devices outsold Apple’s iPhone globally and in the U.S. The end of the year rise is understandable as both of the U.S.’s largest carriers, AT&T and Verizon, boasted strong iPhone sales in comparison to Android, but after a year of eye-popping numbers, the Android ecosystem has not made a dent in iPhone sales in this metric. It could be attributed to user behavior or device/mobile browser performance or any of several sociological phenomena.
Outside of OEM share, one thing is clear: the mobile Internet is changing the way people access information. If history holds true, then more than one in every six Internet users in the world will be accessing the Web through cellphones by Jan. 2013.
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