Flipkart launches iOS & Android apps for its digital music store Flyte; A review
Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart Online Services Pvt Ltd has launched a Flyte app for the iOS and Android platforms. And for those who are wondering what Flyte is- it is the company's online digital music store that it claims has over a million tracks from more than 1.5 lakh albums across 55 languages and 700 genres and sub-genres.
The app is available for free on the Google Play store and the iTunes app store and is compatible with all smartphones having Android 2.1 and later versions and iPhones, iPod Touch and iPads with iOS 4.0 or later versions. We tried out the iOS app and here is what we felt.
The first thing that annoyed us was the fact that to use the app, users have to login from their existing Flipkart accounts. That in itself is not that bad since you will anyways have to login to make purchases, but since the app does not have a sign-up option, means that users have to visit the site, make an account, and then login in the app.
Once logged-in, the users are taken to a default page that contains all the tracks/albums that have been purchased by the user from Flyte. Users can choose to either download purchased songs from Flyte on the device (one swipe action refreshes the library and updates it with new purchases) or import their iTunes tracks to the app. Once downloaded, the tracks can be accessed and played through the app even when the device is not connected to the Internet.
The app also allows users to create new playlists and add tracks (both imported as well as downloaded) to them. Once created, playlists can be edited, cleared or deleted altogether.
It also has an accounts section that allows users to switch on/off the 'auto import iTunes tracks' option and the 'Facebook sharing' option (shares the tracks on the Facebook Timeline as and when the user listens to them). The default download bitrate for songs is set to 320kbps, but the users can change it to 128 or 64kbps from the section. If the track is available in the preferred bitrate, the track is downloaded in that bitrate. If not, it is downloaded in the best available bitrate.
Although you will not be able to purchase tracks and albums using the iOS app. The ability to purchase tracks/albums has only been provided in the Android app (probably because of some monetisation issues) and that offers the same collection of MP3 tracks and albums that is available on Flipkart.com. But users require sufficient 'Flipkart Wallet' balance to purchase tracks.
On the whole, the app has a pleasant interface that is quick to respond to commands. And while listening to tracks, a quick sharing button (for Twitter) has also been provided that sends out a default Tweet that reads 'I am listening to XYZ- title on Flyte MP3'.
Do give the app a try and share your feedback on the same.
(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)
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