StreetView on Mobile - Imagine the opportunities for travel

Forget how irritating this Google StreetView video is for a moment and think of the possibilities for hotels and destination services.



Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Mobile travel blog - a bit like others but looks good

A press release from Telestial.com we featured on the main site today is rather interesting.

[Read about our new press release policy]

Anyway, it's a mobile based service which allows users to update a "journal" (blog!) on the move, which is not new, of course, but then the automatic interface it uses is rather nice.

The Telestial demo.

And some screen shots.




Kevin May, editor, Travolution

More Purple Podness - Mobile, tour ops, user experience

The Purple Pod returns after a small break for the summer. The episode features Alex Bainbridge (Travel UCD), Peter Deane (Handy Group) and David Flower (Gomez).

You never guess who I 'ad in the back of my cab, guvnor?

Travolution doesn't generally take part in the travel jolly but, er, this was an opportunity not to miss - and it was in a London black cab (not some far-flung corner of the globe).

To coincide with a new PR push for the Handy Group, a select group of hacks were invited to sit in the back of a taxi as it drove around Central London yesterday, while chief exec Michael Lacey demonstrated some of the platform's functionality on his iPhone and ran through a presentation.

Travolution recorded the event for prosperity, on a below-par Nokia camera phone.

The Hotels4u-branded cab [Handy Group has a content deal with the accommodation-provider].

A tourist attraction en-route.

Lacey runs through a new viral video for the company - lots of unfeasibly good looking 20-somethings doing stuff with mobiles.

And shows the flight search on his iPhone.


Just a bit of fun...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Reduce costs by spending more on IT

SITA has issued some headline findings from a couple of its reports, angled around how the airline industry can use technology and IT to address the bottom-line impact of the hike in fuel prices.

The IT specialist claims that online booking has already saved the industry $2bn in distribution costs. And there’s more to come – from the 121 airlines in its sample, the average level of direct bookings is 24%.

But reducing costs remains the most common reason for investing in IT. Industry body IATA’s latest estimate for the aviation industry’s losses this year is $2.3bn. And IT accounts for an average of 2.2% of an airline’s revenues.

The increasing importance of mobile phones is highlighted in a separate paper. SITA says that ‘location sensing via mobile devices could save airlines up to $600 million by tracking passengers, sending messages and moving them to gates more efficiently; improving turnaround times and reducing delays.’

It also predicts an evolution of self-service to mobile devices. ‘Airlines are forecasting that while only 1% of passengers use mobile phones for check-in today, this will rise to 6% next year by which time more than half of airlines will offer the service.’

And 85% of the sample is now providing passenger data to the world’s governments. Last year it was only 4%.

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

Dynamic sat-navs show promise for travel sector

Mobile services for travel are currently being talked about with as much frequency and gusto as dynamic packaging, circa 2005.

The mash-up of in-car sat-nav facilities with hotel information is also something which crops up from time to time.

So interesting to get an email from NDrive last week, boasting of a new sat-nav system which also uses aerial photography of key cities and locations to guide drivers to a destination.

Once again, it doesn't take an enormous leap of the imagination to see where this might go.

Destination content providers could quite easily add a feed into the system so a driver can find out more about a location and availability of services or products, such as hotels, using quality images rather than the current graphic-based and rather dull looking interfaces.


Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: satnav sat nav sat-nav

Free e-book on mobile and travel

Our thanks to mobile travel specialist Mantic Point for pointing us in the direction of a new e-book it has created, available now for free.

Developing a Mobile Strategy for Travel Companies is well worth a read.

You can download it here from the Mantic Point website or go straight to the PDF.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

The Biggest Travel Storyline of the Year - really?

So says Jaunted, when talking about in-flight wi-fi.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - Random site you didn't need to know about

But hey...

Gerry Samuels of Mobile Travel Technologies, when talking about the Blackberry during his presentation, managed to waste at least 10 minutes of every delegate's time tonight or when they are back in the office, but pointing them in the direction of a quite bizarre site.

CelebrityBlackberrySightings.com!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - Mobile push

So Gerry Samuels from Mobile Travel Technologies is on the main stage.

This is what happened in 2007:

• Launch of the iPhone
• Google Android
• Mobile Web Advertising
• Nokia bought Navtech

So what's up:

• Costs of access
• Multiple standards
• Limited payment systems

Convergence is the real issue here. People use computers and mobiles in very different ways.

Indeed, mobiles are not being used for search and bookings - rather, they are better for what Samuels calls "services", especially in-resort.

The other area is in promotions. Some work for the Malmaison hotel chain, where a print display ad had a SMS number for readers to send to download Malmaison availability and information, saw an impressive 10% conversion rate once people got to their computers.

But there is a change. People are beginning to make last-minute bookings via a mobile phone, facilitated in part by the rise of Google Mobile, which is the most popular website - inevitably - on the mobile internet.

So are you ready for Google Mobile to find you?

You can find out right now:

Go to Ready.mobi to see how well - or not - you rank on Google Mobile.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

PhoCusWright@ITB 08 - Quotoid #1

Love this.

Gerry Samuels, of Mobile Travel Technologies, on a gradual switch between believers and non-believers in the mobile world as far as travel is concerned:

We had the trough of disillusionment. Now it's the slope of enlightenment.

Our mobile article from December 2007 has more.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: mobile

The Thomson Oracle

"Customer choice and technology are blowing away the traditional ways we choose a holiday," says Thomson in a press release.


The wise heads at the company put their minds to good use recently by predicting [often not the best idea but let's see what they think] what might happen to some elements of travel:

• Holodecks – for an advance preview of what their holiday might feel like, Thomson.co.uk customers could soon experience Star Trek style “holodecks”, where holograms, simulated sounds and smells will enable them to discover virtual hotels and resorts, and even soak up a “real” sensations, like a stroll on the beach, skiing on the slopes or simply partying the night away!
• Mobile phone swipes – Customers deliberating over their future holiday will soon be be able to save holiday information to their phone by swiping their mobile over a dedicated in-brochure/on-line bar-code. The digitally transferred information will then be downloaded by a travel consultant, who’ll be able to see the customers’ preferences before making any recommendations as to their destination.
• Rapid contact facilities – Thomson.co.uk envisage a rapid contact search facility that will help people track family and friends overseas. By simply logging onto a dedicated website, a pop-up will show the location of the family or friends phone.

#2 and #3 really aren't that far away though, are they?

Nathan's Midgley of Travel Weekly's typically waspish response last year to holodecking.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: thomson science fiction RFID airport mobile

Browsing at 40,000 feet - not for a while yet

Interesting article on ZDNet about the likelihood of all passengers getting internet access on flights.

The saga is a pretty sad one in some respects as aircraft manufacturers and airlines have spent a lot of time over the years claiming they will have the quickest, safest and most reliable connections.

But not a lot has happened.

And, unfortunately, this situation is not about the change that quickly.

• Expensive to maintain
• On-board kit is heavy
• No industry standard

Read on.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Enthusiasm for mobile is all around us

Could this be the year for mobile travel?

Lots of people reckon so and we put a mobile phone article on the front cover of our December 2007 edition, so we're reasonably confident that something is about to happen.

A number of holiday firms - Cosmos, Hotels4u, Pegasus - have been quietly working on searchable content for mobile phones for some months. [Hotels4u announced their effort yesterday]

Others – such as Malmaison in partnership with Mobile Travel Technologies - are dabbling with mobile marketing campaigns.

We already know that in some countries such as Japan, mobile travel is a few steps ahead and simple airline bookings are being made using mobile phones.

And, we are beginning to see movement in the US as well, including Apple’s Arizona Travel Deals on your iPhone or iPod Touch combining searchable hotel and travel content with a webcam.

Travelocity has today also released an application for the iPhone. In fact, there are already around 50 or so travel-based apps for the iPhone!

The applications show off the iPhone’s user-friendliness but it won’t be long for other suppliers to come up with handsets that are just as good – arguably they already exist but haven’t had the fanfare of the iPhone.

Anyway, the point is the phones are improving and so is the content and there are loads of applications for which it will be rather useful:

• Travel alerts when you are on the go
• Bar codes for checking-in at airports or with hotel confirmations
• Marketing messages/promotions with a call to action
• Using GPS to see where someone is and then pushing relevant travel info. to them
• Searchable and bookable hotel, tours content

There are more, and as the technology moves from WAP to HTML we’ll probably see ones we haven’t seen much of yet such as social networking on the mobile phone.

WAYN has talked about allowing members to update their profiles from their phones - but it some respects it seems a bit strange to network with people via your mobile phone when you could just call them!

In some respects the extraordinary growth of the SMS message indicated how we feel about communicating with other people on a mobile.

More fuel for those predicting the death of the conversation perhaps?

Linda Fox, lead reporter, Travolution

Predictions from around the web

Ahead of our own crystal ball gazing post (currently being written), check out the predictions from the Travolution RSS reader.

Guardian's John Naughton - Internet's own 9/11.

Drama 2.0 - The lighter side of the tech world.

Mashable's Adam Ostrow - News Corp to sell MySpace. Mobile social networking. Blogs become acquisition targets. Facebook goes truly mainstream. Start-up consolidation. Microsoft buys Yahoo. Email lives.

Mashable's Mark Hopkins - Battle between apps. Intellectual property. Rise of Green Tech. No bubble bursts.

ZDNet's Dana Blankenhorn & Paula Rooney - Battle for the network.

Computerworld's Stacy Collett - Google in 2008.

Struan & Associates Tourism Destination Crisis's David Beirman - Gulf states growth. Eco tourism. Eastern Europe. Stopover in Asia.

ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley - Microsoft in 2008.

Guardian Travel Section - Destinations aplenty.

We will add more as they come in during the next few days.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Wireless guide to US airports

Travelpost has created a handy guide for those twiddling their thumbs at US airports over the holiday period, itching to get on their laptops and avoid the gift shops.

The definitive guide to wi-fi hotspots and wireless connections.

Might be handy...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: wi-fi wireless airport

To mobile or not to mobile?

The Daily Telegraph is attempting to whip up a bit of a campaign with its call to keep flights "mobile-free", claiming it has the support of MPs.

A number of airlines, including Ryanair, are looking at the possibility.

Agree?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: ryanair mobile telegraph

Web via mobile phone use on the up

The Mobile Data Association says today the number of internet sessions on UK mobile phones has reached almost 16 million.

This figure for December 2006 is apparently an increase of one million on the previous month.

Undoubtedly this is good news for travel companies looking to reach consumers via mobile handsets, especially those that have hardly been able to contain themselves since the Apple nailed its colours to the mast in early-January.

Mobile analyst Thomas Husson, from Jupiter Research, appeared to poo-poo the increase on the BBC website by suggesting it might be seasonal factors such as gift buying. Not sure about that theory...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

iPhone could finally push travel into mobile

Following on from our earlier post: let's not talk down the iPhone at all.

A straw poll within the Travolution team, and amongst friends, like-minded gadget fans, family and the pets, indicate that there is no doubt that the iPhone is an incredibly slick looking piece of hardware!

Mathieu from the Radaron.com blog outlines some of the ways in which the iPhone could be used for travel services.

But time to be very honest here: while the mobile phone has been talked up for a long time as the key device that travel companies should ensure they are ready for...nobody has really cracked it.

What the Apple iPhone might - repeat: might - do is finally push the concept of the multi-media, hand-held device into the mainstream.

Consumers have been waiting a long time for a internet-enabled handset that is easy to use, has a decent screen, stores their music collection, looks stunning and - this is important - is made by one of the trendiest manufacturers in the world.

However it is not a lack of technology that has stalled the use of mobile as another form of digital distribution of travel products.

The iPhone has the potential to radically overhaul the mobile market.

And the widely talked about and, often quoted "vitally important", role the mobile has in travel might, at last, become a reality.

[Check out the demo on the Apple site here, and press the link to Maps]

[Completely unrelated: for some light relief and one of the funniest clips of 2006, watch this video on YouTube, outlining what might happen if the Microsoft branding people ever got their hands on the iPod]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Forget iPhones for a minute - think about cars

Most of the tech world has been quite rightly fawning over the worst kept secret in the sector for a few years – Apple’s long awaited move into the mobile communication market, with its iPhone.

[Watch Apple’s Steve Jobs very impressive presentation on a videoclip via the BBC]

But while there is no doubt that the iPhone, and other multi-function handsets, will eventually have a major impact on the travel sector (it has email and web functionality, for starters), another announcement earlier this week could also have similar uses.

Microsoft’s deal with the Ford Motor Company to provide software that will enable drivers and passengers to voice-activate mobile phone calls and music.

[Microsoft announcement here]

The dashboard console, known as Sync, will do all these things but, as one senior company techie tells us, the possibilities for the travel sector are enormous.

Sync – in the future – could allow users to find and a book hotel, on the move, our mole tells us.

There is a general feeling in the car industry that, until now, drivers and passengers have been cocooned from the outside world.

Giving Ford customers – and, eventually, the rest of the vehicle-using world – the opportunity to continue their online habits whilst on the move suddenly seems like a very strong proposition for the travel industry.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution