Apple giveth, and Apple taketh away. Such was the story for the “Chipotle Mobile Ordering” iPhone application today.
This morning we saw the iPhone App Store offering a new Chipotle iPhone app for fans of the fast-food chain’s simple-yet-satisfying Mexican fare. For those of you not familiar with Chipotle, think Subway for burritos and tacos. Alas, the Chipotle application has been pulled from the App Store, presumably due to bug-issues.
The Chipotle Mobile Ordering app represents the first-ever application made available through the iPhone App Store that turns the iPhone and iPhone 3G into a mobile-ordering platform. Chipotle Mobile Ordering allows users to customize their Chipotle order, pay with a credit card, find the nearest Chipotle restaurant, and even save orders as “Favorites” for future orders. The app is reminiscent of Apple’s push to bring mobile-ordering technologies to the iPhone. Apple filed for a patent application that outlined a method that would have the iPhone interacting with a mobile-ordering service to help iPhone users avoid the hassles of waiting in line. The Chipotle app could be the first-step on the road to putting in food orders via iPhone.
Let’s hope it returns to the App Store with less bugs.