News today from Orange that the Apple iPhone will finally be available in the UK to users in its network and not just those of O2 will probably boost the chances of 2009 being the “Year of the Mobile” for travel, as so many have predicted.
So while anger over roaming charges remains a problem, pushing the iPhone to yet another of the UK’s large service providers will not only boost sales of Apple handsets but also enhance the general connectivity of consumers on-the-go.
This, some say, is an issue which has dogged mobile as a critical channel for travel brands.
Nevertheless, interactivity still appears to focus around a key areas – something that examining the iPhone app charts can illustrate.
Take the iTunes App Store in the UK.
The top free apps for the iPhone are dominated by relatively basic information services, such as a London tube map, Google Earth, Urbanspoon (a dining out app), train travel search and another to identify the location of traffic speed cameras.
The first app featured in the list which is produced by a so-called travel brand is the Kayak Flight and Hotel Search – remarkable in itself given Kayak’s reasonably low profile in the UK on the web.
BA’s app, which was one of the first launched on the iPhone in July 2008, hovers around position 15 in the top 20.
As for the paid apps, public transport and airline information services dominate once more – travel brands
It is left to the Lonely Planet Travel Guides app (costing a nominal £0.59) to secure the only place in the top 20 for a well known travel brand beside from the rail information sites.
There is a similar story in the US. The top free apps are dominated, once again, by information-style services – with the exception of the Kayak and TripCase apps.
Paid apps follow a similar trend to the UK.
One quirk of usage either side of the Atlantic Ocean which emerges in the App Store charts – which Apple PRs are reluctant to give away – is how eager (or not) iPhone users are to pay for their apps.
One in four of the top iPhone travel apps in the UK are paid for by consumers – in contrast to that of the US where just one of the top 20 apps is bought by users (FlightTrack for $5).
It is reasonably well known that many of the major travel brands have decided to take a raincheck on investing heavily in mobile functionality such as iPhone apps and other handsets tools – although most are reluctant to admit it.
“We have had other things to concern ourselves this past year and, to be honest, it is easier to watch others test the water for us before investing heavily in so-called killer mobile technology,” says one well-placed technology executive within a major global travel brand.
The expansion of the iPhone in the UK and similar moves in the US when AT&T loses its grip on the service could be, this particular executive believes, the trigger for a raft of enthusiasm for mobile travel.