Earlier this month, GIA released the first GIA i-Pad app, for retailers and consumers to provide detailed information relating to purchasing a diamond. The app. will almost certainly provide a very useful tool for reference, which can be used by retailers to educate clients, and for the client to download and refer to. The application carries the same look and feel to the GIA website, and provides consumers with a nice range of information, and interactive tools that can only prove a benefit to anyone looking at engagement rings. The application also includes videos on aspects of diamond grading such as colour, clarity and diamond cut.

The diamond size tool is a handy feature also, in a similar style to the diamond colour interactive tool. A slider can be used to move the diamond through the various carat weight options, to give a better idea of the 1:1s scaled physical size of the diamond. Although it would be nice to have a range of diamond shapes, the application retains a simple uncomplicated feel without offering too much choice within the tools. The feature of being able to add a second diamond to the size tool for comparison is also a nice touch.

The diamond cut interactive tool is also nicely laid out, with examples of excellent, very good, good, fair and poorly cut diamonds being provided. So to is the diamond clarity tool, which shows both diamond maps, and photographs to demonstrate diamonds of particular clarity grades. Although these are just an example and do not indicate the diverse difference that one diamond can have when compared to another, it illustrates differences very nicely. The diamond colour tool is kept simple and very comprehensive allowing the user to move the slider to reveal examples of how the whiteness of a diamond changes along the colour grading scale.

The interactive GIA grading report anatomy also sets out very comprehensively, an explanation of what the details contained on a certificate actually mean. Additional information on the origins of the carat system, diamond fluorescence, diamond treatments and synthetic / simulant diamonds are also useful information that has been considered and included.

The clear, comprehensive, well thought out detail in this application cannot be mistaken, and the usefulness and applications for this free development to both retailers and consumers is self explanatory.

We are also looking forward to seeing the  i-phone GIA app. which will be coming out in a similar guise, over the next few months.