Mobile Ticket from SameSkyTickets.com

Earlier this month, Apple announced that you can now make purchases with free iPhone applications.  What will this mean for mobile ticketing? According to several news articles, iPhone application developers can now sell content and digital services through their free apps. Prior to this announcement, users could only purchase content from paid apps.  Having the ability to purchase mobile tickets through a free iPhone app could be very useful for event patrons. However, with Apple taking a 30% cut on all in-app sales, its not very likely that event promotors and artists will adopt this model. You may want read the TechCrunch article announcing the change to Apple’s policy.

Ticket broker eSeats has an iPhone app that allows users to browse and purchase event tickets through the iPhone, but expect to pay a premium for these seats.  While mobile ticketing is not mainstream, its growing rapidly in popularity. MovieTickets.com has made it easy to purchase movie tickets on any mobile. When a patron purchases through SameSky Tickets, they can choose to receive tickets directly to their mobile device. While mobile tickets can contain a barcode, many venues lack the expensive scanner required to read them. However, for smaller venues and performances, it doesn’t matter.  The crowds are small enough that box office agents can easily validate ticket ownership via ID and check the patrons from a master list at the door.