Damien Martyn Releases iMarto, Riots At Apple HQ

This is not a joke.

Damien Martyn, god bless him, has released an iPhone application to teach the little boys and girls of Australia how to flail loosely outside off stump and drill one to gully.

I downloaded the app from the iTunes store; first two things I noticed, they got the proportions of Martyn’s head just about right, secondly, after downloading..

“Hi…

Its Damien Martyn here…”

What is with the trepidation Damien? Is it really necessary to trail off your sentences like you are divulging your deepest secrets? Seriously, its a fricken iPhone app. Moving forward…

The application is actually quite handy and innovative on first impressions. The standard Lite version comes with a few reference videos for Backfoot, Forward Defence and Straight Driving; allowing the user to layer their own videos over the top to compare stance and follow through with ‘Marto’. The Lite version is Free, which is a plus (I wouldn’t have paid to test it), with a Full version costing $1.99 and giving the user access to a range of other stroke, along with the whole back catolougue of ‘Wild Roadtrips with Marto Uncut’.

There is also a handy ‘Speedometer’ tool for bowlers, which calculates a bowlers speed over 22 yards.

One highly suspicious tab offers for $3.99 the ability for the user to send two personal emails to Damien Martyn himself; there is no guarantee that Marto will reply, however. In fact, clicking on this purchase brings a message “Do you want to buy One Send Mail for $4.49″.

Last but not least you can access a Damien Martyn appreciation page, where you can access basically a cut-copy of Cricinfo information.

Overall, there are some positives for the application, along with some creepy ponsi-esque business modelling.

The Good:

• Interesting layer options for comparing batting technique with a classical batsmen.
• Speedometer may be useful for getting a gauge of bowling speed, but may be only accurate to within 10 km/h.
• Nice layout, simple, easy to use.
• Accurate proportion on Marto’s head in the logo.
• Free for Lite version.

The Bad:

• Damien Martyn asking for $3.99 ($4.49?) every time someone wants to email him. Ever heard of getting a Twitter account Damien? Also, might as well be emailing Pakistani’s for cricket advice, I doubt it will be the true Marto who answers.
• Not enough Video of Marto in the spa with the babes.

2 out of 5 stars – Potential, but overall disappointing.