The mobile app industry has exploded. While nine billion apps were downloaded globally in 2010, that number was estimated to have more than tripled in 2011 to around the 30-billion mark.
Roughly 25 per cent of apps that are downloaded are only used once and then discarded. With hundreds of thousands to choose from, it's hard to keep up and easy to miss some of the classics from, you know, 12 months ago. With that in mind, let's take a look at three money-saving mobile apps that might be more likely to stay on your phone.
OpenTable
The OpenTable app allows you to make reservations at restaurants from your smartphone. You also accumulate points for doing so and those points can be exchanged for gift certificates valid at any of the many restaurant that use the OpenTable system. While a normal reservation earns you 100 points, restaurants looking to drum up business will periodically offer 1,000-point reservations. You can claim a $26 reward voucher with only 2,000 points, so you could just use a filtered search for 1,000 point tables on the app, and after two visits you've earned yourself a main course at a mid-range restaurant. Plus it's a great incentive to try new places.
Not only do you get a confirmation e-mail, but you have the option of plugging the reservation into your e-calendar, and you can also forward the e-mail to your guests so they can do the same.
Even if you know a particular restaurant won't be busy and you won't require reservations, get into the habit of always making one on the app and you'll be racking up discounts. The app is free to download and use.
There's one more benefit for Canadians: while we get $26 per 2,000 points, those in the U.S. only get $20. For once, we actually get a better deal as a result of differing currencies.
Navigation Apps
With most smartphones these days incorporating all the guts that are required to make a GPS navigation system work, why bother buying a second set of guts? Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on hardware and periodic map updates, you can now just buy an app that does the same things for a fraction of the price.
While that's probably one of the most expensive apps you'll ever buy, you'll be saving hundreds of dollars – even after spending another $40 for a hands-free car adaptor kit so the screen is always in sight.
While many phones include a rudimentary map feature that should do the trick for people who rarely deviate from their daily routes, road warriors who often travel to far-off destinations can benefit from a full-featured GPS navigation app.
I've personally been using the TomTom app for the iPhone, which was $49.99 and includes maps for Canada and the U.S. The Canadian-map-only version is $39.99. With the TomTom app, you also have the option of live traffic updates in major cities for $2.99 per month or $19.99 per year. This additional feature is helpful and works more often than not, suggesting alternate routes when your current trip has excessive slowdowns. It's not perfect, but I've found it's getting better and better.
Honourable Mention: GasBuddy
I just downloaded this last week. Another free app, it gives you real-time prices at the pumps which you can sort by cheapest price or closest location. I've been checking it every day and the spread for a five-kilometre radius from my house is about six cents per litre for regular grade gas.
I scouted out local stations twice to ensure accuracy of prices and out of 10 stations I checked (over two trips), only one had a slightly different price than the one shown on the app. If you manage to save even five cents a litre on a 50-litre fill-up once per week, that works out to $130 per year.
Preet Banerjee, B.Sc, FMA, DMS, FCSI, is a W Network Money Expert, and blogs at wheredoesallmymoneygo.com. You can also follow him on twitter at @PreetBanerjee