By: Liz Farmer

In this never-ending quest by phone companies to alleviate the pressures of thinking for ourselves, the Ocean City Department of Tourism is jumping on board and has announced the launch of its free iPhone application.

Ocean City Mobile is now available through the iTunes Application Store and provides information on restaurants, accommodations, entertainment, services, promotions, weather forecasts and more.

Ocean City is one of the first beach destinations to launch an official iPhone app, according to the news release, which also notes a version of Ocean City Mobile for Blackberry and Android will be available “in the near future.”

I am doing my best to avoid the iPhone/Blackberry/Android revolution so can’t comment on the potential awesomeness of the new app. But I can comment on the marketing benefits to Ocean City. With its biggest summer marketing budget ever, the beach town is staying relevant to its audience AND making itself more accessible.

Now the trick is once people get to Ocean City, how to pry the phone out of their hands so they actually enjoy the sights and sounds of the tourist town. Is there an app for that?