Fun Cinemas, one of the major multi-city multiplex chain in India, has released their mobile ticketing app for Windows Phone a few days back. The app allows you to check showtimes, choose your seats, and buy tickets with several payment options.
That sounds cool, and you’d wonder why I’d dismiss it as pointless. The Fun Cinemas app is published by Bigtree Entertainment Private Limited, and is a clone of the BookMyShow app. BookMyShow, a product of the same company, is India’s largest entertainment ticketing service, and has had an app on Windows Phone since forever.
The app has identical design, user experience, and functionality as the BookMyShow app. Essentially it offers a subset of cinema choices (limited to Fun Cinemas) as against BookMyShow’s exhaustive options. So, while I could already book tickets for a movie at Fun Cinemas through BookMyShow’s app, the Fun Cinemas app allows you to book those tickets with similar functionality with no difference in user experience. Now why would I need that?
Clearly it's a marketing decision so that people who search for Fun Cinemas in the Store will find a dedicated app versus the more robust BookMyShow. In other words, it's good for the ecosystem but not necessarily for the savvy consumer.
If you wish, you could download the Fun Cinemas app on you Windows Phone 8 devices from here. However, I’d recommend you to download BookMyShow app instead, if you haven’t already.
