(12 Nov 2014, 8:17 pm)aureolin wrote Dan has mentioned on here about GNE's AVL, that should be in by the end of the year. From what's being said on here, I'm quite keen to see it in operation, and I do think it'll bring GNE both up to and beyond the standard given by Stagecoach and Arriva. It of course requires a human element too, and a proactive approach, but I'm sure that'll happen too.

I don't think it's the case of operators believing that Android or iOS have a monopoly in the smart-phone market, but they do have the greatest market share - approx 90% between them (2014 stats). Unfortunately a lot of companies, not just bus operators, see the big two as being enough to cover everyone. We shouldn't overlook that the next biggest share is Windows Phone, with about 9% (iirc). If you can port an app to the Windows Phone platform in addition to Android and iOS, with the achievement of almost 100% coverage of smart-phone market share, then surely it's got to be worth doing.

Well, AVL should certainly bring Go North East up to the standard set by Stagecoach... Not so sure where the idea about Arriva North East having a great presence on Social Media has come from? I think I'm right in suggesting that all of Arriva's Customer Service departments are based in Luton; as such, this frequently leads to Arriva making mistakes (even if it is just the spelling of locations) and also leads to misunderstanding with regards to locations (ie reference to a pub within a location instead of a specific timing point on a timetable)... Conversely, Go North East and Stagecoach employ local staff who have a greater knowledge of the region, and make fewer mistakes...
Interestingly, the Social Media representative for Arriva appears to use their mobile phone to see and reply to queries (which appears to have led to a 'typo'!). See this post.

Agree with your posts regarding Windows Phone; however, I think cost will be prohibitive. The cost to develop a mobile phone application on another platform will impact on the viability of doing so, especially when you're only providing it for what could potentially be 9% of customers.