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Rapha iPhone app to hit Apple's app store this week

"Social networking" app will allow groups of cyclists to hook up for rides...

Cycle clothing and accessories brand Rapha is reportedly set to launch its l;ong awaited app for the Apple iPhone, according to a report on the website of the interactive marketing magazine, New Media Age.

As expected when Rapha first revealed plans to launch an app at the time it unveiled its Spring/Summer 2010 range earlier this year, the app takes the form of a social networking tool that will allow cyclists to arrange group rides through a messageboard.

Using the iPhone’s built-in technology, it also enable cyclists to keep tabs on each other’s whereabouts ahead of going on rides – and presumably, to see how close your Sunday afternoon ride’s lanterne rouge is to joining you and the other riders at the coffee stop.

According to New Media Age, the app, called Rendezvous, which has been developed by Future Workshops, will launch in the coming week – we’ll hopefully bring you some screen shots as soon as we can obtain them from Rapha, and the website quoted Rapha CEO Simon Mottram’s explanation of the rationale behind it.

“Arranging for groups of 8-10 people to meet is notoriously difficult and this helps them to stay in touch,” he said. “Our research found about 45% of customers have iPhones so we though this was a good platform to be on.”

That last sentence probably tells you all you need to know about the affluence and style-consciousness of Rapha’s target demographic – ownership of any type of smartphone is around the mid-teens, percentage-wise, across the entire UK population – and the company is said to be looking to develop applications for smartphones powered by competing operating systems such as BlackBerry and Google’s Android platform.
 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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5 comments

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Fernando | 14 years ago
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"l;ong awaited app for the Apple iPhone?"

maybe for rapha fanboys, not for other.

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neilwheel | 14 years ago
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The death of the text message is just around the corner ... which you should have no trouble finding with your new Rapha iPhone app.

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handlebarcam | 14 years ago
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Odd that uber-cool Rapha is producing what sounds like a gadget for Freds. I'd have thought the idea of needing a social media app to organise a group ride would run contrary to the image of old skool wool garments, Roubaix-shower-asceticism, and riding Belgian pave on steel frames. But maybe the functionality is a smokescrean for what will be essentially another I Am Rich app, if their usual markup is applied.

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DaveP | 14 years ago
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The quality will be remembered long after the price is forgotten...

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Carlton Reid | 14 years ago
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Thing is, £180 is probably too expensive for an iPhone app.

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