Zipcar, a Web 2.0 rental car company, launched a new iPhone application for its service that in addition to delivering Zipcar’s core functionality can also unlock the rental car’s doors. Pretty cool. Zipcar’s service allows members to use their vehicles which are parked in various central locations around a metropolitan area on an hourly basis. By adding this new level of mobility, Zipcar has the tools in place to really disruptive the stagnant rental car industry.
Zipcar’s core service is already pretty cool. You can reserve cars online, and, without ever visiting a traditional rental office, go straight to your car, unlock it by tapping your RFID-enabled membership card to a windshield sensor, and drive away.
With the new iPhone app, you use the Zipcar full application anywhere their service is offered. The service currently operates in 25 cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Lond
on, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington D.C., has close to 6,000 cars and more than 250,000 members in its system. The Zipcar iPhone app is available now at the Apple App Store on iTunes and is for free for existing Zipcar members.
Zipcar is quite an interesting case study for the disaggregation of “traditional” business models with not only leverage the Web but also mobility. It applies “new economy” functionality to an “old economy” business model and has created a pretty cool and potentially market changing solution. Can’t wait to see what CEO Scott Griffith and the rest of the gang at Zipcar have up their sleeve next.
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