Well here’s a first; the creative folks at Plannr have come up with this hypothetical “What would the world be like if the cast of MTV’s Jersey Shore used our mobile scheduling product?” promotional video, above. Suspend your disbelief about the Jersey Shore crew caring about schedule management and login to Plannr as Snooki (password: “abc”) , join Ronnie and Sammi as they “discuss things” and get roped in with “The Situation,” DJ Pauly D, and Vinny as they “be single” (Note: Enlarge video to full screen for full effect).
The boot-strapped Plannr hard launches this week, and is aiming for a small but crowded niche, attempting to trump email, SMS, and phone calls as existing but somewhat disorganized scheduling tools. Plannr founders and former Microsoft employees Ben Eidelson and Jason Prado are targeting plans made specifically within small groups of friends, less than 10 people. Plannr for the iPhone can sync geo-locational data simultaneously with your calendar software, and is compatible with iCal, Outlook, etc.
While there is some overlap between Plannr and Google Calendar, Tungle.me, and Doodle, it might be the perfect substitute for those rambling plan related email threads between friends, the ones that people are too lazy to post to Facebook. Eidelson and Prado provide a solution to a personal pet peeve, “If you’re making plans with a group over email, you can forward or CC us the email. Plannr will email everyone involved with a link to the new plan, and even try to parse out the time.”
Plannr suffers from the same chicken egg problem as all services that necessitate multiple connections and user adoption, plus people tend to be more rigid about organizing business planning as opposed to social (why corporate planning tools like Microsoft Exchange work in the first place). I could easily see this as a useful addition to an existing service and the heavy Google Maps and Yelp integration hearkens to this aspiration.
Like RULE.fm the spare app interface is specifically appealing to those with hipper sensibilities. And like the RULE.fm guys, they sent us a picture of themselves, below.
Plannr is available in the App Store and on the web here.
Plannr is an online, email/mobile based plan-maker and event coordinator. When you invite someone to a plan via email, Plannr sends them one email on your behalf. The email contains all the details of the plan– the time, location, and who else is coming. When you update a plan, the change is pushed to your friends via whatever contact settings they have set. This can include email, txting, or a push notification to the iPhone app.
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