Mobile Mayhem? Not if You're Switched On

Greetings, Cafe Patrons. It's been a busy few weeks for the Barista, trying to keep on top of all the latest and greatest technology announcements from local and global players leading up to this week's NBTA jamboree in Houston. Many announcements have been related to new partnerships with significant mobile capability aspects (see: Travelport/Rearden; Orbitz/TripIt; TripIt/Google; Concur/Mobiata, etc. etc.) but the reality is that most of these integrations, in my mind, still have a long way to go before being embraced by corporate travel programs.

Oh don't get me wrong, I fully realise that business travellers the world over have been downloading and using services like these for a while now and will continue to proliferate amongst the world's road warriors. But today's Cafe is brewing up a subtle blend...note that I said corporate travel programs. Nothing to do with the aforementioned road warriors.

You see, the main issue that company travel managers are still struggling with is what these mobile vendors will (or won't) do to support (or torpedo) their carefully crafted travel programs. Years of relationship building and negotiations with preferred airline/hotel/car providers are being threatened by the Northern Regional Head of Sales' infatuation with the iPhone App Store and downloading all sorts of content that may have them booking a room at the Sofitel rather than the Sheraton. Room night commitments to Starwood be damned!

And herein lies the rub: travellers are being bombarded by a whole new world of choices when it comes to travel content, recommendations, booking channels, "special" deals, and loyalty perks. Some or all of which may be completely at odds with what the CFO has asked the travel department to do in order to help manage costs while maximising the return on travel investment.

All the while, those same road warriors are battle weary and travel tried from years of cancelled flights, middle seats and phantom hotel bookings. And they are saying "give me what I want as I now have the power to do more and be more effective right in the palm of my hand!"

2010 is truly shaping up to be the year of mobile (and don't just take my word for it - my former colleague and legendary travel blogger Tim Hughes also came around to this concept this year) so any corporate travel managers with their heads in the App World sand are about to get stepped on by the expectations of their travellers. But they still have to watch out for their boss' expectations that costs will continue to be managed and that contract commitments to suppliers will need to be achieved.

So - where to from here? To put it simply, travel managers must be embracing of these new platforms and services but also need to find a way to put some control into the mix. The key will be who can see through all the clutter and glitzy announcements to get to the core of what applications could be leveraged by a corporate buyer.

As example, if you look closer at the Orbitz/TripIt tie up, you'll see a key aspect which gives the travel manager hope: "private company groups" which can be managed by a company administrator. Similarly, applications designed specifically for corporate use like conTgo or Concur Mobile can also inject a significant degree of company management into the mobile space through directing content, messaging directly to travellers, and enabling two-way communication between traveller and company/TMC.

Breathing a bit easier now? Hopefully, as all is not lost if you just keep focused on balancing the need to have travellers be switched on with your company's objectives for strong travel management. But for sure, the mobile mayhem will knock you sideways if you're not careful, as I hear they're working on an App for that...

EXTRA SHOT FOR THE DAY

Talk about a mashup: the look for the newly merged United/Continental airline livery has been released (see page 4 in the hyperlink.) Maybe calling it a "mashup" is actually too kind...."dog's breakfast" perhaps? Poor Continental - they've led the way for the past decade in terms of a US airline that's somewhat tolerable and then their name gets relegated but the logo stays. At least we'll not have to see those awful snow-white United planes for very much longer....

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

The Future of Travel is Here...and it's Quite Futuristic

Last week I had the privilege to attend one of the largest corporate travel conferences in Australia, BTTB 2010 in Sydney. An annual confab bringing together buyers and suppliers of corporate travel services, BTTB has always tried to find topics to put on their agenda that are interesting and provocative.

One of this year's more interesting items on the program was called the "Mobile Shoot-Out" where vendors of travel technology including Amadeus, Sabre, Serko and ConTgo did a few nifty tricks with various new products, but one of them stood out as quite an interesting take on where corporate travel is going.

The guys at Serko have come up with an application which allows a corporation to be able to triangulate (using location-based mobile technology) a traveller's location pretty much down to the square foot he or she is standing on, and view that location on a map. The theory is that the corporation's security manager or HR director or whoever is in charge of traveller safety would then be able to evaluate whether or not the traveller may be in a so-called "hot zone" and then send messages to the mobile device of the traveller. This would all be under the premise that in an emergency the company could provide the traveller assistance and/or directions out of the hot zone.

Hello, George Orwell, you say? Perhaps, but I'm not as much concerned about the technology (which is quite cool in and of itself.) It's more about what it will be like for corporate travellers in the future with respect to what they will have to give up in exchange for what their company will provide them.

Are you comfortable with not only providing your mobile number to your company and your Travel Management Company but also now perhaps your technology provider? This would of course be in exchange for the peace of mind that come a terrorist attack or another ash cloud descending on your location, that your mobile will swiftly and surely start buzzing with useful information on how to deal with the situation. A good trade, having someone literally watching over you while you travel in exchange for them knowing exactly where you are standing/sleeping/sitting at all times?

The other aspect of this technology, of course, is although it may allow certain company execs to sleep better at night believing that the company's "duty of care" is now fully in place, how long will it be that these "find me and help me" services will be enough? Will the expectation - whether from the travellers or perhaps even the law in some countries - go even higher to ensure traveller safety? Will it still be enough to know where travellers are and send them messages to help out, or will companies now be expected to have their own SWAT-like search-and-rescue teams on standby to physically swoop in and get the traveller out of harms way?

Sounds a bit far-fetched, but I'm sure the Orwellians out there will say it's only a matter of time. Regardless, it's obvious that the future of traveller location and safety services is literally just around the corner...or is that danger lurking perhaps? Can anyone see around corners yet?

EXTRA SHOT FOR THE DAY

One other interesting "trend" heard at BTTB last week was hoteliers "being forced" to pass along credit card surcharges to companies wishing to pay for their hotel bills with plastic. Will we hear no end to the seemingly endless belief across so many companies today that no one is allowed to make money anymore except themselves?

If you want to accept credit cards, you need to pay for their services. It's secure, it's convenient, and it's what business travellers want to use. I don't carry $200 in cash around with me to pay for my room, and I don't want your hotel chain's direct-connect payment plan, as I am very happy with my current payment plan. That would be a credit card, by the way. You want to surcharge me? Fine, I will go to another hotel that doesn't.

Sounds like hoteliers are taking a page out of the airline book and try to fawn off costs of doing business as "extraneous services charges" or some other spun terminology. If you want to sell your product in a market-type environment (read: GDS) so you can attract the most potential buyers to your door, then you need to allow the market to make money off that. If you don't want to pay credit card companies to manage and process your cash flow for you, then don't take the cards. Simple. Then those hotels that do take cards and don't pass along the costs to me will get my business. Also simple.

What's next - a water surcharge for flushing the toilet? No wait, strike that - I should probably keep my mouth shut...don't want to give anyone any ideas....