Pandora is pushing out a series of app updates today as the Internet radio company looks to spruce up its mobile presence.
Pandora is essentially bringing the features of its website to users of its apps for Apple and Android mobile devices. The app for iPhones was being released Monday, while an Android version is expected to follow soon. Pandora also said it is releasing a version for Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 early next year. It will allow ad-free listening for a year with the Windows app.
Tom Conrad, Pandora’s chief technology officer and executive vice president of product, tells USA Today that the revamp wasn’t necessarily designed to boost mobile ad revenue “although the update will see some advertising partners get more involved.”
“Our motivation for doing this was to connect people with the music they’re discovering in a fundamental way,” Conrad said this week.
All told, 2012 has been a year of consistent, impressive growth for Pandora. By late summer, mobile listening nearly doubled for Pandora over the previous twelve months.
Pandora says it retains a 73 percent share of the market for free online radio today.