Why Layar is the coolest iPhone app in the world

Obsessed.

I have become obsessed by an iPhone application called Layar.

I first learned about Layar a few weeks ago when I spoke at the Marketing Pioneers event in Amsterdam.

Layar is a free application that uses your GPS location to show what is nearby by displaying real time information on top of the image on your mobile's camera (it works on other platforms besides the iPhone).

The founders of Layar call it "augmented reality." I call it "cool."

Watch this short video to see Layar in action.

Direct link to video.

How I use Layar

As I travel the world, I frequently find myself in an unfamiliar city looking for a meal. I usually get quite particular about what I'm looking for, saying to myself: "Tonight I think some Thai food will be good," (if I’m not too hungry) or "If I don't get some burritos in like ten minutes I'm gonna freak out," (when I am famished). My wife and daughter say I get mean when I'm hungry. Maybe so...

So when I've got to have Mexican food right now in an unfamiliar city, I open up the "Eat" layar (if I am in the U.S. at the time or its equivalent in other countries), point the camera at the street and see various restaurant names and locations pop up as a layars on top of the camera image. I can even see reviews in another layar. As I pan the camera around the city streets, other nearby restaurants pop into view with a marker on the building of it is visible in the camera so I can find a Mexican joint.

Here's why Layar is the coolest iPhone app in the world

Layar is an awesome mashup.
Layar combines your mobile camera with your GPS location plus huge data sets. The best way to think of Layar is like a cable television provider with your mobile as the television. The different content suppliers (there are hundreds) are like the different cable TV stations and the "shows" on that station are displayed depending on where you are at the time based on your GPS coordinates.

Layar is both truly global and hyper local.
The data sets come from all over the world. Yet you can find something valuable a few steps away from where you are right now. I think GPS-enabled devices with data applications become remarkable marketing platforms for all kinds of businesses—restaurants and bars, retail shops, health clubs, educational institutions, real estate, and more. Having the ability to deliver information to someone at the moment of need while they are nearby your business is a remarkable opportunity.

Layar is real-time.
Layar tells me what I need to know, now, when I need the information (like on a Thursday night in an unfamiliar city when I need a beer.)

Layar is built by entrepreneurs.
Layar is created by very small team of smart people in the Netherlands. I fear that if one of the humongous companies in the telecoms or software space had done this app it probably wouldn’t be the same. The proprietary stuff would come into play. And it would probably only work in one country.

Lots of content.
Layar already has a good content catalog which is growing very quickly. (Many good apps fail for lack of content.)

How one company partnered with Layar

Funda Real Estate, operator of the largest real-estate portal in the Netherlands worked with Layar to launch the first real estate portal within Layar, displaying information on nearly all the properties that are available for sale in the Netherlands. Funda Real Estate aggregates about 200,000 property listings at any one time from nearly all the real estate agencies in the country onto one Web site serving nearly a million unique visitors per month.

"With the Funda layar, we project houses for sale," says Jeroen Wilhelm, Marketing Director, Funda Real Estate, who I connected with in Amsterdam. "So if you look into a street with your naked eye, you'll see there are a couple of houses for sale because they have signs outside of the door. But if you look through the camera, the Funda layar presents dots on the location of each house that you see on the camera screen, giving you a real-time layar upon reality."

With the Funda real estate layar, if you click on the dot, you get information about the house: the price, the number of rooms, how many square meters, and contact information for the agent selling the home.

"People use it when they are in the street, look around and say, 'hey, this is nice neighborhood, this is a nice street, let's see what's for sale here'," Wilhelm says. "But there's more. If you're looking for a house, you might also be interested in checking out local restaurants and nearby clubs and you can do that using other layars giving a feel for if you might like living the neighborhood. It's a big mesh of databases, based on the location of the user, and it brings in a new dynamic."

Interesting stuff.

How do you use layar?

Comments

[Kees Romkes]

I actually develop layars and even on that side things are smooth, easy, advanced, intelligent and extremely intuitive to built and use. Support is superb and the community open and welcome for new devvers.

Nice article btw ! Just bookmarked for more ;)

[Web Tasarim]

I concur. Layar is really an awsome app :)

[ImJonTucker.com]

Wow, seems like a really powerful app. I've been seeing a few app developers getting into this augmented reality app space, but the Layer demo seems like a homerun.

Will check out the app asap.

[Luc]

Funny. The demo video shows Layar not on an iPhone. Furthermore, that would be expensive Mexican food. For you to use Layar, you would have to be roaming using 3G..hum that's about 20$ a minute.

[KristinEDziadul]

Definitely a great app, I just got it for my phone. Good review David!

[Raimo]

Hi, Thanks for the kind words. I like the cable television metaphor. We use it aswell to explain that this is a new medium.

Raimo van der Klein
CEO Layar

[Peter GUO]

I'm seeing a revolution happening now!

I'm a marketeer working in China and got my Android phones last week. I'm currently travelling in Hong Kong now and be lucky to be out of the great firewall of China, so that I can see the youtube video. Even though the Layar service is not availalbe here, but after seeing the video, I think software like Layar, GPS equipped big screen Smartphone will change the way we marketing, just like David said in his book.

Amazing job done! Raimo

[Tara Diversi]

Hey David,

Does it work as well overseas. I find some of the apps say they are worldwide but have limited updates for those of us who are not in the US.

Cheers, Tara

[Eleni]

Great application! It is very interesting to follow the development and proliferation of augmented reality for mobile phones.. Curious to see what comes next!

[Amanda_pants]

I downloaded this app right before heading down to SXSW and it was awesome! Thanks for the recommendation! It helped me find people I know, places to eat and was just really freaking cool.

[Ernesto Reyes]

Nice application that is very useful not only for the businessmen but also for those parents who wants to check out their kids. Helpful also for those who are new to the place they are in, they can use it as a map. Very cool!

[johnkweber]

Used an awesome application yesterday for adding my own data to the Layar system without having to know anything about the API etc. There are a few excellent apps but this one is awesome for putting your details down in seconds without any prior knowledge http://ow.ly/22C77 The companies name is buildar. awesome easy app to use. Wish I had thought of the idea.

[reiner]

Thanks for the kind words

[dell destek]

Absolutely beautiful and stunning. Thank you.

[Perde]

All information is exciting and eye-catching.
Excellent. Thank you.

[Hali Yikama]

nice work at a level of social solidarity and the opportunity to share
a very good time thank you..

[San Diego SEO]

Seriously amazing... I'm downloading it now and will try it out!

[Cunningham]

This is a good common sense article. Very helpful to one who is just finding the resouces about this part. It will certainly help educate me.

[hurda]

sharing is very successful