MS Car Insurance
Price comparison company Moneysupermarket has become the first company to launch a car insurance comparison app for use on the iPhone. Developed by the award winning digital technology firm MIG (Mobile Interactive Group), the app gives users the opportunity to compare prices available through over 100 car insurance companies.
MoneySupermarket.com spokesperson Julie Fisher predicts that this will change the way that motorists go about finding insurance; allowing them to compare prices in any place, at any time.
Although the app is currently only available to British consumers; Fisher has predicted that other comparison services will make similar attempts to take advantage of the developing smart phone market with ComScore recently revealing that the number of people who own smart phones in the USA has risen by 12% to 87.4 million in the past three months alone.
MIG began work on the project in early 2011, with the final product eventually being made available on both the MoneySupermarket website and on iTunes on the 18th November. Director of client services at MIG, David Balko, emphasises that the app had been designed to be both simple and easy to use for consumers while stating that it utilises all of the “Apple Functionality”.
The key focus during the apps development has indeed being making things as quick and painless as possible for MoneySupermarket.com customers, with users only having to put in the information about themselves which is required in order to calculate a premium on the first occasion on which they use the app. On subsequent occasions these details will be saved in their MoneySupermarket.com profile and utilised when ever the user logs in.
Users won’t even have to enter the vehicle information, as the app retrieves information which is stored about prospective vehicles on the DVLA database upon a photograph being taken of the vehicle registration plate. This all means that users will be able to find out how much it would cost to insure themselves on a specific type of vehicle in a matter of moments, which has the potential to revolutionise the car buying experience as motorists shop around to see which vehicle would give them the potential for the lowest premiums.
Julie Fisher hailed the companies collaboration with MIG as a success, and claimed that now was the time for companies to begin to realise the number of customers who are accessible via smart phones or tablet devices:
“We hope that by having a great car insurance buying experience over a Smartphone or tablet for our customers the industry will soon follow our lead and optimise their sites to support those who want to buy their car cover while they’re on the move. We know more and more of our customers are actively using these devices to access our site and emails. We identified that making this easier for consumers was vital and by working with our partner Mobile Interactive Group (MIG) we have created a great solution for our customers”
The insurancetimes.co.uk recently revealed that Confused.com also has a car insurance comparison app in development which has been developed in association with CDL. Confused will likely be working hard to make sure that one of their major rival does not gain a key advantage over them in the ever expanding Smartphone and tablet marketplace.
