FIFA’s World Cup mobile application development is having to go into extra time as it encounters yet more issues days before the kick off the biggest international football competition in the world.
The app was originally launched in December last year, but a continual string of performance and usability issues have continually nibbled away at its appeal.
Limping Off Early
Technical problems were raised when users detailed how the application randomly crashes when accessing new content or when navigating from one area of the programme to the other.
Despite the setbacks, FIFA still claim it will be the most downloaded app ever, but have not stated whether they will be able to fix it in time for the first game which is only weeks away. Nevertheless, a FIFA spokesperson confirmed that they ‘are aware of the issues…and are actively working to fix them.’
The app itself covers all 197 world leagues along with regular updates to keep football fans up to date with all the latest news. Although FIFA have heavily marketed the app towards the imminent World Cup in Brazil, they also had a strong focus on the app as being ‘always on’ for fans to engage with at all times, all year round.
Late Penalty?
Despite the complications, FIFA are happy with the overall 5 star rating from customers within Apple’s app store, and the not-too-shabby 4.2 in the Google Play Store.
With more and more people watching football on their mobile devices, FIFA has to keep its eye on the ball and ensure these issues don’t crop up during the biggest international football event in order to avoid a user backlash.
Many World Cup sponsors have now identified that placing key content on people’s mobile devices is paramount for brand awareness and future customer retention. FIFA now join an elite group of other lucrative brands such as Sony who have embraced mobile centric marketing early.
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