Do you like pubs? Do you like your phone? Do you for some reason want to combine the two? Then as long as De Post in Mt. Eden is the only bar you ever go to, this app is for you.

That's right, a pub has its own app. It's unnecessary, and a bit dumb. Basically it's what you'd get from De Post's website or, you know, actually going to the pub. But it's on your phone! Everywhere you go! It does not need to be on your phone.

If you enable push notifications they'll let you know directly about new deals or promotions, and if we don't allow this for cigarettes or gambling I don't know why it'd be okay for beer peddlers. How often have you gone to a pub that you weren't already planned on going to because of a promotion? Your answer is equal to how many Sad Alcoholic points you have, and the highest score does not mean you're the winner.

I'll give it this: the layout is nice enough, and some of the stock photography is pretty hilarious – it's like that whole ‘women laughing with salad' thing, but with white people and beer.

The one genuinely useful feature of the De Post app is this: when you buy drinks at the bar you can get stamps which add up to an eventual free drink, which is always nice. The idea of the loyalty card is nothing new, but doing it with the camera on your phone seems pretty flash to me (and it means I'm less likely to lose it as I inevitably do with every almost-full stamp card I ever have).

It's just so specific – it's not a general bar rewards app, it's not even for the Belgian Beer chain (which has what, like half a dozen franchisees?). It's just for this one bar. And while it's a nice bar, it's a generic Belgian chain place. Would you really ever consider it your favourite? Even for a bar I love, I don't think I could justify devoting a whole app to it.

I guess I don't really have anything against this app, I just think it's unneeded. Someone at De Post's looked at their website, and their menus, and their loyalty cards – all of which were working just fine – and said ‘this is great, but what's that thing the kids are into these days? Apps? We gotta get one of those if we want to be down with the kids!'

Maybe I'm being mean but replace ‘kids' with ‘mid-thirties professionals' and I'm probably not too far off the mark. This seems like an app for app's sake, and instead of thinking about how an app could actually be a useful addition to a pub's brand, they've just shoehorned their existing marketing into a downloadable format (the stamps-on-your-phone thing is the exception to this. I actually think that's neat).

If you already frequent De Post then you might as well get the app. Maybe you'll get the odd free drink from it. But surely there must be an app out there that would offer you the same benefits for more than just one bar. Right?