Rearden Commerce, which offers corporate travel booking and expense management, released an iPhone app which mirrors its Web-based Personal Assistant -- both are mashups of multiple applications.
Mobile expert Norm Rose, who heads Travel Tech Consulting, agrees that the Rearden Commerce iPhone app is differentiated from most.
"Rearden is essentially a mashup of multiple applications so its iPhone app follows the same model," Rose says. "That does not say that the other apps don't have multiple functions, but they are not necessarily mashups of multiple apps."
Rearden says its new Mobile Personal Assistant for the iPhone contains the following apps:
- Access complete travel itineraries
- Receive real-time updates on your flight's status
- View airport parking reservations
- Reserve discounted car service
- Get directions using Google Maps
- Access weather forecasts for all travel destinations
- View RSVPs of people you've invited to dinner
- Search location-based restaurants, read reviews and make reservations
- Email travel and dinner plans to friends and colleagues
- Click-to-call the travel agency
Tony D'Astolfo, Rearden's vice president of worldwide sales, says the company's strategy was to consolidate its apps so travelers don't have to "sift through tons of applications on the iPhone."
"Why not have one mega-application that holds all of a user's personal preferences, gives them access to content relevant to them and enables them to search for services relevant to their needs," D'Astolfo says.
Rearden launched its first mobile technologies in May 2008 and has a Blackberry apps, the company says.
The new iPhone app, as well as multiple versions of the Blackberry app, were developed in-house. The team is working on a mobile Web application where travelers would be able to access content from some 160,000 providers from any smartphone.
Rearden allowed several corporate clients to pilot the iPhone app in January before launching it publicly in late February.