My first review of an iPhone application has to be Analytics App.  Just last week I was sitting in a meeting and a client was asking about historical analytics data.  I had only been engaged with the client for a short time, so I wasn’t sure about some conclusions they were drawing from the data.  We were at a location where wifi wasn’t available, so there was no way to access the data.  It was frustrating to say the least.  Had I access to Analytics App on the iPhone, I could have pulled up the client’s account and had access to the data within about 30 seconds.  This application is a must have for any analytics consultant with Google Analytics accounts to manage; if you’re a real analytics freak, it truly gives you reason alone to have an iPhone.

The interface itself is simple but highly effective.  You have access to all your accounts and profiles from the introscreen.  Switching between profiles that belong to multiple account is actually easier than it is in the GA interface.  Once you are in a profile you see a menu of options.  The first is Today which is really handy for just quickly checking in on account to get a read on traffic.  Below that are the rest of the reports you’re used to seeing in the Google Analytics interface.  You can navigate quickly between sections to see the data that’s important to you.

Once you’re in a specific area, you can the basic data from those respective sections in Google Analytics.  If you want to modfiy the date range, this is another feature that is actually faster and easier in Analytics App then it is in the GA interface.  You have access to the same slot-machine-like date interface that is used in the iPhone calendar application.

Without a doubt, you’ll quickly get to a point where you want to dig deeper into the data, and you’ll be unable to in Analytics App.  However, the application isn’t for hardcore analysis, but rather for exactly what it does: offering you a very quick and easy way to monitor your basic analytics data from anywhere.

The one thing that would make this application way more effective is if GA had real-time data: but that is obviously in the hands of Google, and not Michael D. Jensen (@mdjensen) the creator of Analytics App.  Pulling in data from an application like Clicky or Woopra that has real-time data would be really cool.

Overall, pretty impressive and well worth the $5 it costs.  Thanks to Michael for creating such a great app.