Actionable Apps: Chipotle Shows the Way
About nine months ago, we heard whispers of a new iPhone app from taqueria chain Chipotle, which was one of the first of its kind: allowing users to place orders from the phone. It was quickly shut down for unexplained reasons but this week it has reemerged. TechCrunch reports the original flame out was because it needed to be retooled (read: server side readiness).
Now it’s back and presumably ready for prime time. There’s not much difference from the original version except that it presumably works. The core functionality involves finding the closest Chipotle, ordering anything from its menu, and paying via secure credit card transaction. It can also remember all your information and past orders to make future ordering easy.
You can imagine future tie-ins to social tools to share info, reviews or tweets. It will also be interesting to see some of the app’s data after it is in the market for enough time to see what percentage of orders are coming in via mobile. This will be limited at first due to the size of the iPhone addressable market, but you can bet it will be available for other platforms.
