Prediction: the iPad Will Finally Get People Booking Travel on the Move

Morning, Cafe patrons. I hope all our visitors know that the Cafe is a "mobile-friendly" zone whereby all things can be discussed regarding the future of mobile in travel. No quiet zones here! And to stir things up this morning and perhaps get some conversation going, I'm going to make a bold prediction. And it's not just predicting for prediction's sake.

I believe that the iPad will drive a significant growth trend in booking travel on the move over the next 18 months - 2 years.

And by significant I'm thinking double-digit growth within the next 12 months.

Last week at the Asia Pacific Aviation Outlook Summit, Claire Hatton from Google shared with the assembly that mobile searches are nearly half of ALL searches in some Asian markets, and that Australia is rapidly growing as a mobile search market (to clarify, "mobile search" for those of you like the Barista who wondered exactly what that means, is simply a search initiated by a mobile browser or device rather than a PC-based browser.) That's a lot of browsing on the move.

But as with all things mobile, transacting travel on a hand-held device has always been far behind using the good-old PC and mouse to perform the task of buying something online. Even the iPhone still hasn't cracked the transactional code in terms of getting people to buy on a mobile device.

Whether you might argue that the iPad is more PC than mobile is certainly up to you, but I'd think you'd be in the minority. With Wi-Fi and 3G wireless connectivity, the iPad to me is truly mobile. Although you'd look like an idiot holding it up to your ear to carry on a conversation.

In the Barista's humble opinion, I don't think that the iPhone was truly a game-changing device. Much like the iPod, Apple just took an existing gadget - a phone - and made it better. Like the iPod did to elevate the MP3 player. However, I think that the iPad is truly a transformational device. More PC than phone, but less PC than a laptop, and certainly more functionality than an e-Reader, the iPad's size and portability (plus Apple's great use of touch-screen ergonomics) makes it game-changing.

Why? To me, the key unique value of the iPad is real estate - lots and lots of screen real estate. Big enough to seem like a full Internet browsing experience, complete with nearly full-size keyboard. And, ladies and gentlemen, that is why I think people will finally start to transact on the move using the iPad.

Granted, I don't yet have one for myself and have had only a handful of interactions with one (mainly at the airport - FREE TIP: buy it duty free, save yourself a hundred bucks here in Australia!) But I can tell you I'm a hell of a lot more likely to search, book and buy my travel on the iPad than I am on my Blackberry or on any iPhone. Because I can actually see what I'm doing and act like I'm still on my PC - keyboard and all. And that to me, is the true game-changer. And that is why I believe that by early 2012, mobile travel bookings (leisure, corporate or otherwise) will be through the roof on these nifty devices.

You heard it here first...

(And if you didn't, tell me where you did!)

image courtesy GadgetVenue.com

Ah Technology - the Highest of Highs...Followed by the Lowest of Lows.

My fellow cafe fiends, I write to you today with a heavy heart. OK, perhaps that's a bit much...let's just say I've been betrayed.

Yesterday I heralded the long-awaited coming of truly mobile check-in, using my Blackberry as a boarding pass with Qantas. Well, it's time to silence the trumpets as my return experience wasn't so exciting.

When I repeated the process of checking in for my return flight (in the cab on the way to the airport - had to keep up the image of "man on the move") after clicking the "Check In" button on the Qantas mobile site I was left with this crushing message: "Boarding pass expired. Please call 13 13 13 for assistance."

But I don't want to talk to anyone. I want my robot fingerprint!

Alas, apparently there is some bug in the system where if you check into your outbound flight, sometimes it checks you in for the return flight at the same time. Or so the Qantas staff on the help line told me.

Actually, it wasn't all bad - I've never had such excited Qantas people on the phone with me helping out with a problem. When I rang in and described my plight, the agent on the phone couldn't have been more excited. "Ooh, you're my first call who's used the service! Let me get out my new manual and see what we can do." A few calls back and an escalation to a supervisor only got me to the above conclusion - a bug - but hey, at least the human element of technology was nice to work with.

But I have to say that my earlier effusiveness has waned somewhat...let's see how things go next time as I'll likely be using Virgin Blue's new "Checkmate" system for my next trip. Here's hoping it will bring back that "high" - well, high-tech anyway - feeling from before!

Checking Out the New Checking In

Mobile phones have been around for ages it seems. And yes, mobile technology providers, handset manufacturers and software companies have been saying for years that the process of getting on an airplane is going to be revolutionised.

But until yesterday, this particularly well-travelled Barista had yet to really and truly have his travel experience altered by the mobile world.

How did this happen? It only took a little squiggle of lines looking much like a robot's fingerprint, scanned on the screen of my mobile, to change everything.

Recently both Qantas and Virgin Blue announced the availability of mobile check-in along with a suite of other mobile-device enabled services - mainly geared towards iPhones and Blackberries. Virgin Blue in particular has made much noise about their Blackberry-specific application which from my limited exposure to the "App World" seems to be a big deal as it appears to me that nearly everyone else is building Apps for the iPhone. As a Crackberry addict I'm pleased someone is looking out for us who crave real buttons on our smartphones rather than vapourous touch screens. Luddites unite!

But, back to the real action, and how do these much-vaunted applications work in the real world? I can honestly say they work a treat. The night before my flight to Melbourne on Qantas, I logged into their mobile site, found my booking, checked-in on my phone and received a 2-dimensional (in techspeak it's actually called "2D") barcode via SMS and on the Qantas mobile site. Today I just strolled past the check-in queues and kiosks, through security, and straight to the gate where I flashed my phone under the scanner and voila- a beep and a green light later and I'm on my way down the jetway.

I should point out that it's not a completely paperless process- you do get a little ATM-receipt sized piece of paper which you need to produce at the door of the plane to prove that you've used a paper-less process to get that far. An added layer of security, the flight attendant assures me. No problem, I'm all for a bit of tree sacrifice for safety.

But as I write this post, I find myself strangely excited about the prospect of repeating the process on my way home tomorrow. Perhaps not so much because the mobile check-in has finally found it's day in the sun, but more so that I am hoping that I'm again the only person on my flight tomorrow who will be able to whip out their phone and scan my way onto a flight.

As with all new technologies, it's only as cool as long as you're the only one who knows about it. After everyone starts doing it, I'm sure it'll be as boring as in-flight food in no time.