Craigslist finally launches an official iPhone app

By: Noah M.

Craigslist has finally launched an iPhone app — and it’s a hit.

The new app for the classifieds site — which has remained stubbornly low-tech despite its pioneering disruption of the newspaper industry more than 20 years ago — has already risen to No. 6 on Apple’s Shopping chart Thursday morning.

That put it ahead of similar classifieds apps like OfferUp and Letgo as well as large retailers such as Target and eBay.

The new app matches the austere look of Craigslist’s website, with black and purple text on a white background, which one App Store reviewer called “outstandingly old-school.” Its 84 ratings have an average of 4.4 stars.

Craigslist’s web launch in 1996 by San Francisco tech entrepreneur Craig Newmark predated the opening of Apple’s App Store by 12 years, but the company had not bothered to release its own app until this week.

Some third-party apps, including an officially licensed one, allowed iPhone users to browse the site’s listings in the meantime.

While some users praised Craigslist’s commitment to its simplicity, others complained that the app lacks iPad compatibility and security features even though the site took more than a decade to release it.

“Craigslist hasn’t changed anything in like 20 years,” one review reads. “If it wants to stay relevant it should adapt and change.”