Politicians utilize apps

At a tensely political time in the U.S as Mitt Romney and President Barrack Obama race for presidential elections, the two candidates turn to the power of mobile devices and tablets.

You might not be as interested in U.S politics as you are in Juju’s latest comments or the latest textbook crisis, but Mitt Romney and President Obama have launched their own apps proving that even politics have a place in the smart phone world.

Obama’s app reeks of democrat, titled Obama for America, described as, “We’re building this campaign from the ground up, and the Obama 2012 app has all the tools you need to join the fight to move the country forward.” The 4.1MB app features photographs from the presidential campaign, facts like “3.1 million more young adults now have health coverage”, daily news, updates and events. If you’re in Obama’s camp, you can also reach out to other supporters.

Mitt’s VP, available for iPhone 3Gs, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation) and iPad running iOS 4.0 or later, can be found in the business category on the iTunes apple store and is the latest to come from the Mitt Romney campaign. It is free for download and is 25MB. The aim of the app is for users to get the latest updates when it comes to Mitt Romney’s VP. With notifications on your phone, exclusive news and alerts, users will know that latest political news before anyone else in America. And as politicians do, if you share the app you can win exclusive merchandise and content. There are other apps for Romney supporters like With Mitt, also available on the iTunes apple store.

In South Africa, we can imagine that a Helen Zille app and a Jacob Zuma app would do quite well. Imagine reading about Zille’s latest news straight from the source or being able to shortcut to a sound clip of Zuma’s chuckle and famous “absolutely” trademark phrase. We could also follow them around the country with more than just tweets and news clips with photographs, supporters and events all on one platform. It also opens up a new flow of communication when it comes to our favoured political parties.

It might also allow us a bit more access to them. We can find out their views on just about everything and tackle our own political frustrations with the information at hand. While problematic in that it would only cater to those in the country who can afford smart phones and tablets, it would still grant a small portion more access when it comes to understanding politics.

Would you like to see your politicians on your phone? Or are politics best left to the media?