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

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.