Online entertainment site Fandango is continuing its push to let consumers pay for movie tickets on any platform possible with a new application specifically designed for Android tablets.

Fandango has made mobile a major focus and the company claims that 40 percent of traffic comes from mobile devices. In addition to the Android app for tablets, Fandango also has apps for the iPad, iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 7, Windows Slate and BlackBerry devices.

“Tablets have grown increasingly popular among consumers, and our goal at Fandango is to be everywhere the consumers are,” said Ted Hong, chief marketing officer of Fandango, Los Angeles.

“For that reason, it was important for us to create an app specifically for Android tablets that offers a richer way to browse for movie information that is custom-tailored for the Honeycomb operating system,” he said.

Fandango is an entertainment site where movie fans can buy tickets, read reviews and learn more about films that are in theaters.

Sweet as honey
Unlike Fandango’s Android app, which is made for smartphones, the Android tablet app is designed for Android’s Honeycomb operating system.

The app automatically refreshes with all movies that are playing in theaters, both nationwide and locally.

Using GPS, the app can locate the nearest movie theater for consumers.

Users can also save their favorite theaters for quick access in the future and see how far they are from theaters.

Consumers can see available show times and purchase tickets via the app.

Similar to the Fandango Web site, users can buy tickets either for same-day shows or a few days in advance.

The Fandango for Android tablet app aggregates fan reviews and critic reviews, which users can pick from to learn more about the film.

Additionally, the app scours Twitter to bring up the percentage of positive tweets about the movie.

Movie fans can learn more about the film with cast photos, videos and trivia.

The pulse feature shows consumers the most popular films across the country with an interactive map.

Here is a screen shot of the pulse feature

“We tailored this app to the form features of the tablets, offering a personalized approach to finding show times for movies at favorite theaters and richer, more immersive, high-definition video and photos,” Mr. Hong said.

Mobile entertainment
Fandango has seen a significant increase in the past couple of years for mobile ticketing.

Most recently, Fandango claimed that 20 percent of its summer movie sales were driven by mobile (see story).

In addition to a lengthy list of apps, the company also has a mobile site, which helps consumers speed up the process of buying movie tickets.

However, with Fandango’s hunger to be on every platform with a relevant app, the company might be stretching itself too thin.

For example, Fandango released an application for Windows Slate tablets, but with such a small market share, a mobile Web site might have been just as an effective to target movie fans on the device.

However, Fandango claims that applications for mobile devices have reached almost 20 million, showing the success that mobile has played in its strategy.

“Judging by the dramatic increase in mobile traffic and mobile ticket sales, moviegoers have made it clear that accessing Fandango via their mobile devices is extremely important for them,” Mr. Hong said.

“It obviously takes a lot of work to build new apps from the ground up for different platforms, but it’s worth it,” he said.

“We’re all about responding to the needs of our consumers, and so we want to make sure that the Fandango experience is optimized for every moviegoer no matter what device they’re using.”

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York