In advance of official word from Amadeus, Tnooz has learned that the GDS's customizable and brandable application for travel agencies — M-Power 2.0 — has been fully redesigned by Sound of Data.
Travel agency customers of Amadeus can now sign up for the latest version, which debuts first as iOS only, and comes with new pricing terms. The first branded apps will be available in the App Store this month and will let agencies distribute the full range of GDS air content directly with no 3rd party content connection.
The app's new features include:
- TripIt-style interface for itinerary management
- the new ability to manually add booked flights by simply entering a flight number and departure date
- the ability to manually add booked hotel reservations
- the addition of WorldMate-style weather forecasts for a destination for 7 days (up from 3 days previously)
- an improved user interface for things like the menus and swiping motions to change between screens
- autodetection of your country by using your device's GPS (rather than scrolling for your country's name in a list)
- improved language options for 7 languages (English, Dutch, German, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish)
The app already offered online check-in reminders via SMS notifications, flight status messages, and social media integration on top of a basic trip-management tool.
Travel agencies struggling to adapt to the rapid movement of customers to mobile solutions can now offer their own app that has full search, booking, mid-trip, and post-trip functionalities by iPhone or Android devices—and soon a version in HTML 5.
As we reported previously, Amadeus has already signed up travel agencies to use the mobile product, including BTS Travel Experts in Belgium. BTS Travel Experts had so much success with this application that in November it was awarded the Belgian travel industry innovation award 2012.
Amadeus is using a revenue-sharing model for m-Power, such as making mobile notifications a revenue generator. The app is designed with space for promotional messages that agencies can customize for upselling based on the demographic of the user.
Sound of Data says that future iterations in app design should come more quickly from here on out because the company has migrated m-Power to a stand-alone backend platform. It has slated to build capabilities for hotel, car and rail reservations; location-based content that will sell geo-location relevant tours and activities, restaurants, and transportation.
The company has also has also built its own tool for distributing branded iOS and Android apps.