First Middle East movie buff iPhone app launches [UPDATED]

UPDATE April 27, 2010: Naviflix Lite has been released as Free of Charge on public demand! You can download it here!

Flip Media, one of the regions interactive media agencies launched just today the first movie seeker’s iPhone app.

Naviflix was built to do one thing, and do it well: help movie buffs get to a movie they like as fast as possible. The app is now available on the iTunes App Store literally shows you what’s playing in theaters ‘near you’ utilizing iPhone’s location based technology to list movies in cinemas within proximity.

It comes with two tabs displaying, in alphabetical order, movies that are ‘Now Playing’, and ‘Cinemas’ allowing users to sift through their cinema of preference, or simply scroll through the long list of movies being showed (currently only in the UAE). Clicking on a listing will expand the view to display information specific to the movie including a trailer and snapshots from the movie itself.

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The people from Flip Media haven’t forgotten their tweeple, Naviflix comes with built in social media support, allowing movie goers to share their experience on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter in order “to encourage users to engage in real time conversations” and “post films they are considering watching and get immediate feedback from friends.” said Imthiaz Rafique, Head of Flip’s Mobile Applications Development.

The service targets the mobile phone industry in the region, at this time only supporting the iPhone and a number of smart phones even promising support for the holy iPad during the months to come.

“The UAE is the region’s second-largest film market, with over 200 cinema screens, and gross box office receipts of US$74 million.” stated Dinesh Lalvani, Managing Partner of Flip Media, ” Those figures, coupled with the fact that increasingly people are accessing information through smart phones, makes mobile apps a strategic touch point to reach consumers.”

According to its creators, the Naviflix app has been carefully designed to be able to integrate with any cinema’s mobile ticketing system giving it the future option to team up with cinemas throughout the region to let users buy tickets making it get you what you want, where you want without even having to stand in line.