Apple is reportedly working on a new travel application, iTravel, for its iPhone.

Published: 26 Apr 2010

Apple is reportedly working on a new travel application, iTravel, for its iPhone.

According to a report filed by patentlyapple.com, Apple has reportedly filed a patent for a travel app that books flights, hotels and car reservations, as well as providing ticketless check-in using Near Field Communications (NFC), a short-range wireless technology.

Intense battle

The development has emerged at a stage when the battle between the likes of Apple, Nokia, Amazon, Google and RIM continues to get intense.

Earlier this year, Nokia told EyeforTravel that the company is in a great position to offer a compelling platform for the travel industry.

“Through our Ovi services, which allow easy access to key functionalities both on PC or mobile, we are able to give our partners in the travel space presence via both channels. Given that travel is generally planned on a PC, but it’s your mobile that ultimately takes the trip with you, I think this is a key differentiator,” said Robert Rogers, senior product manager, Nokia.

From the airlines’ perspective, too, the going continues to be strong.

For instance, Lufthansa has taken several path-breaking initiatives over the last year or so when it comes to using mobile phones for improving passengers experience. Last year, Lufthansa launched its mobile boarding pass service for the first time on a long-haul route (between Frankfurt and Vancouver).

Stefanie Heucke, IT Manager, Mobile Services, Lufthansa, last year told EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta: “The focus has been - from the beginning - on usability. Only if the mobile services are easy to operate and can work reliably, then only we can expect the customer to actually use them. For example, the paperless travel started many years ago to substitute the old paper ticket. Now with mobile check-in and boarding pass customers are completely location independent and flexible. This process makes life easier for both, customer and airline.”

Going forward, Heucke felt there are still two issues that need to change:

• There need to be more standards over the whole industry so that development is easier and faster.
• The network providers need to reduce the data rates especially for roaming but also the flat rates in their home markets as the customers are afraid of unknown cost for the usage of mobile services.

Airline mobile web services have centered around making available flight schedules, fares, plus destination and airport information for all mobile phone users.

“As an airline these are the traditional information customers are looking for. A new trend will certainly start around the options new devices provide like location based services as well as integration of other services like social networks,” Heucke had said. And this has been the case, too, of late.

Earlier this year, Progress Software announced the launch of what is being described as the air travel industry’s first real-time, location-based social networking solution for frequent flyers.

Launched by Lufthansa, MemberScout enables its users to instantly swap, share or exchange knowledge and ideas. The application, available as an iPhone and soon also BlackBerry app, was developed by match2blue, the mobile application specialist, using the Progress Apama Business Event Processing (BEP) platform.

New trends

One of the major developments this year has been the availability of free navigation system on Nokia’s handsets. Also, mobile mapping services continue to be in news, be it for their potential for integration with other location aware services or the location-based advertising market.

The industry witnessed a 68 percent increase in the use of mobile mapping and direction services across Europe in the last year. In February, more than 21 million mobile users (age 13 or older) in five countries –the U.K., France, Germany, Spain and Italy - used their mobile handsets for navigation. The highest growth, according to comScore, was seen in the UK market, with an 86 percent increase to 5.7 million mobile map users.

For their part, hotels believe that booking – especially last minute bookings – along with pre stay planning and in market arrival can be natural fits for the mobile channel.

“Our statistics show that roughly 70 percent of mobile web bookings are same day compared to 11 percent via the web,” says Bill Keen, director of product development, IHG.

Keen believes that one of the key areas will be in the utilisation of location based services that trigger contextual information or messages to guests and properties.

“For example, if we detect a traveller’s arrival, we could trigger messaging about check in and have their portfolio prepared while they are in transit and ask they needed particular hotel service such as room service,” says Keen.

It again points out to the fact that location is the holy grail of the mobile experience. And the way applications are mushrooming around location-based services, one can only expect more excitement in this arena.

This topic will be debated and discussed at the Travel Distribution Summit in London this June 17-18.

Mobile in Travel will be a key topic at this year’s Travel Distribution Summit, taking place on 17-18 June in London. For more information about the mobile issues that will be covered at the event, click here

By Ritesh Gupta
Eyefortravel.com