I’m mixed on this one, but it is generally exciting. Chipotle announced today a new iPhone application that allows you to order stuff in advance via your iPhone. Pretty awesome. One of the major complaints that I hear about chipotle is that certain locations have such a long wait time. This application allows any of the millions of folks with an iPhone to jump past the line and get their food.

iPhone Application - Should help finances

During the investors call in the summer of 2007 the Chipotle people on the call noted that the speed to process orders each hour was one of the biggest limiting factors for their was the speed of the line and (more importantly) the checkout process during the busiest time periods. This application allows them to utilize a second food-prep line and a totally separate payment process (which should be faster in terms of time spent in the store). If they can process an additional 5 orders during the busy hour that’s actually a big deal for them. Chipotle’s stock was actually down today - perhaps the market already knew that this was happening or perhaps the market hasn’t picked up on this news yet.

iPhone App Bad - Mobile Website Good

Why am I mixed on this? Well, my iphone broke and Apple and AT&T are a bunch of complete morons. (seriously). I would much rather that Chipotle build a mobile optimized website where this was possible. When I go to the Chipotle.com site with my G1 (Android) phone I get a mobile optimized site but all I can do is find restaurants - there’s no order form at all :(

Chipotle used to have an online order form but it’s now down for maintenance. My phone even has Flash on it, which is the preferred technology for Chipotle.com sites, but there’s no way for me to say “yes, really, I want the full fledged Flash based version of the site.”

+1 to Chipotle for embracing the modern digital age of mobile apps.
-1 to Chipotle for embracing yet another “locked-in” technology.