One of my personal “must have” free travel apps, Tripit, gained both an Android upgrade and a paid version that removes ads on Thursday. Along with that news comes some interesting travel data from Tripit’s mobile user base.
For those not familiar with the app, here’s a quick summary. After booking online travel, you simply forward travel confirmation emails to plans@Tripit.com. The service quickly scans the mail and creates a full itinerary in the Tripit application. All of your trip information is available in one place, ready to share, and you use it to create a Google Calendar for your trips.
The latest update for Android, version 1.8, is available for free in the Android Market and brings a bit of facelift. That’s good, because while the app has always been useful on my Android phones, the iOS version always looked better and was a little easier to navigate. Tripit says the updated Android app looks cleaner — and I agree — plus the software takes up 30 percent less storage space, supports Google sign-in, and is ad-free for $ 3.99.
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With a popular travel app for multiple platforms, Tripit has plenty of travel data. Apple iOS devices (and presumably, their owners) take more business trips than Androids. For those who take 15 or more business trips yearly, 21 percent use Android, compared to 23 percent using iOS. BlackBerry travelers take the most business trips, accounting for 36 percent of this high-frequency group.
So what about vacations and other leisure trips? Apple users take more time off for fun, according to Tripit, making up a higher percentage of those who take four or more leisure trips per year. Android outnumbers iOS for the group that takes one to three fun trips.
Something that might help explain the data are the age groups of Tripit users. The highest percentage of Tripit users on Android are the crowds in their late twenties and early thirties. BlackBerry and iOS users of the app tend to be older: Late thirties and early forties make up the largest groups for these platforms.
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