The really interesting part about mobile travel apps right now is how much investment is going into this space.
And, equally important, how the improved functionality is making a much more compelling value proposition for the end user.
So I ask the question: is it too late for airlines themselves to own a piece of this?
So who are some of the players to watch
Worldmate (formerly MobiMate) have been writing mobile travel apps before they were even called by that name. Privately held, the company has investments from Motorola Ventures and the Blackberry Partners Fund. They were based in Israel until key staff announced an intention to relocate to Silicon Valley. Their deal with Virgin Blue is one to watch.
Tripit recently pulled in a third round of funding from Azure Capital Partners and O’Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures, bringing to$13.1 million the amount taised to date. Sabre was an investor in an earlier round.
Tripcase from Sabre recently announced Omega World Travel as the first TMC to deploy their app, so this is definitely a trend to watch.
Mobiata have their FlightTrackPro product, but what makes them even more interesting is their partnership with Farelogix and their intention to work directly with airlines.
Cornerstone and their ilk. You won't see them in the B2C space, but they have a lot of the underlying data to offer some compelling apps if they chose, either in their own right or partnering with others.
This is a very competitive space, and the list could be extended to offerings from companies like Traxo, Kayak and more, but I've stuck with the ones I am personally watching most closely.
And if you are still not convinced of the potential for mobile apps in travel, take a look at this survey showing the gap between traveller preference and traveller adoption - although somehow I think the mobile disbelievers have disappeared, only to be replaced by the disoriented who are still trying to discover a way to make sense of it all.
They will later to be followed by the disillusioned who will ask why they themselves didn't do anything with mobile back in 2010!
Improved functionality
As a frequent traveller in both Europe and the Asia Pacific region, the amount of times I've been inconvenienced due to last minute flight cancellations or significant delays really has been quite minimal.
And when I have, the airline has typically telephoned or sent an email to warn me. For this reason I was not an early adopter of the mobile itinerary planning apps that touted their real time alerting functionality.
That said, I can definintely see why others, especially those travelling to airports frequently affected by adverse weather conditions, have signed up in their millions. But now, even my resistance has crumbled.
Business social networking really is a powerful way to make travel more productive and more enjoyable, but to date, no technology vendor has really taken full advantage of this.
I remember having lunch with Scott Hintz from Tripit at a CASMA conference in Berlin in October 2007 and we were discussing how some type of partnership with Linkedin was what they absolutely needed to get traction amongst business travellers.
I was very happy one year later to hear that Tripit were launching the first Linkedin travel application. Business contacts could monitor your travel plans if they were subscribed to email updates from Linkedin.
This was a great start, but there was still a lot of room to make the process work more smoothly.
Tripit have for a long time had the ability to invite people as connections/friends, but this was of limited use up until now as most people would never initiate an entirely new social network (ie. replicate what they already have elsewhere on Linkedin or Facebook) just for a travel site.
I imagine Worldmate learnt a similar lesson after they launched their own social network in May 2008. Both companies now appear to have changed for the better.
One partial way around the problem above of starting a whole new social network is what Tripit have done with their recently launched Groups. It allows people sharing the same company email domain to see where their colleagues are travelling at any point in time.
It still amazes me that more companies don't make use of this type of functionality, and Tripit are clearly going after a subset of the Cornerstone business called iBank. Many companies are currently paying good money to see where employees are travelling at any point in time, but Tripit will surely be putting some downward pricing pressure on this valuable product.
This model sounds a bit like the early days of Salesforce.com - sales management software was previously sold at the corporate level, but the new entrant sold to individuals who did not want to go through a central procurement office.
The resulting user adoption become so widespread and the users so passionate, that in the end the corporation had no choice but to succumb. Tripit will be hoping for a similar groundswell of mid level manager acceptance to overcome established players like Cornerstone.
The one big disadvantage Tripit will face initially is non compliance in forwarding itinerary emails. Unless someone centrally (maybe the TMC implant in a large company) forces every itinerary email to be BCCed to Tripit, the system will have too many gaps to be truly effective.
Worldmate are also moving forward in a very valuable way by seemingly making even better use of Linkedin data than Tripit. Rather than getting an email from Linkedin on your contacts and their travel plans, Worldmate incorporates this into the mobile itinerary planner - as they themselves say, even elite travelers eat alone on the road.
Where this becomes really powerful, and Worldmate are not there yet, is when my Linkedin location is updated regardless of whether I am using Worldmate, Tripit, Tripit Groups, Cornerstone or any other program or supplier, and then this information is matched with the itinerary planner on my smart phone.
Clearly LinkedIn are sitting in the box seat on this one (apart from maybe some large corporations who also wield influence in making this tool valuable) as what is needed is either one central repository on location, or mobile app creaters who try and assimilate this information from multiple sources.
Using GPS on the phone to track location is too intrusive to get mass adoption, so it will be interesting to watch how it all pans out.
So what about the airlines?
First of all, why even ask about the airlines? Many readers will already know that I've been writing on innovation in airline direct sales channels for over a year on my own blog, so whether I am writing about ancillary revenue, social networking, mobile, or any other travel related topic, I always try and come at it from an airline direct angle.
So which airlines am I watching, and why?
So far in this piece, Virgin Blue is the only airline I've mentioned by name. The airline's general manager of marketing, Michelle Lee, was quoted recently talking about mobile, and it appears from the CEO's comments that the deal was actually done with RIM who probably referred it to Worldmate as part of their investment in the company.
I don't know Lee personally, but I've heard staff at Virgin Blue speak highly of her passion for taking the airline into the forefront of social business.
She has a good quote about Blackberry being chosen as the preferred platform because "we recognise [it] as the preferred device for business customers. Part of our ‘new world' strategy is we are trying to reposition ourselves as the carrier-of-choice for the business segment."
Using a mobile app, and possibly even the social networking components within that app, as a way to reposition a former LCC to attract a higher yielding customer is a great way to think about the new opportunities being presented to airlines via mobile technology .
Another point I mentioned earlier was the partnership between Mobiata and Farelogix; the reason this is particularly interesting is because they are also working directly with airlines.
Ben Kazez is the founder of Mobiata and when I was talking to him earlier this week I asked about where he saw the real opportunity in working with airlines: Merchandizing was one of the first words he said.
Service recovery was also mentioned (example given of notifying someone about free wifi if their flight is delayed), but he was passionate about the opportunity for selling seat upgrades and lounge access via a mobile app.
On the question of whether an airline could build this for themselves he was quick to emphasise Mobiata's "code tested with hundereds of thousands of users already" and their UI focus that has resulted in strong user acceptance.
My view on selling ancillaries via an app (just like selling via an airline website) is that the issues of payment and fulfillment are always harder than they first appear.
At every airline conference I atttend there is alway some wide eyed newbie with a great product telling airlines "Just add this to your website and watch the money roll in," only to be replaced by another wide eyed newbie with another world changing product at the next conference.
If Mobiata were doing this on their own I'd be much more skeptical, but doing it in the way that they are definintely means they need to be taken very seriously.
There are many more airlines doing interesting things in mobile, but today I've been focussed writing mainly on the dowloadable apps rather than websites optimized for mobile. In reality, for an airline to own this space in their market, the two should be closely intertwined.
Earlier this month United Airlines announced a mobile website where "customers can view their itineraries and, in the event of missed connections, see the flights on which they have been automatically rebooked, rather than waiting in line at the airport for agent assistance" and Finnair have a great feature where they can send an SMS upgrade offer whereby replying to the message sees points deducted from your frequent flier account - a great way of overcoming payment limitations.
So the opportunities in mobile are much bigger than the app, but this piece could easily double in length if I kept going down this path.
The airlines really have the ability to take mobile to the masses - more and more passengers are buying and installing third party itinerary planning and sharing apps by the day; the more mainstream this movement becomes, the less power the airlines will have in influencing the direction it takes.
It is very difficult to displace a frequently used tool loved by its user, but fortunately for airlines these early adopters, even though they number in the millions, are still only a small percentage of travellers actually owning smart phones.
2010 really is the year for the airline to get serious about its mobile strategy.
So to wrap up, I move away from the airlines and back to the vendors (my own employer clearly excluded).
With Worldmate and Mobiata chasing the airlines, Tripit chasing the corporations and Tripcase chasing the TMC's, will the rest be left chasing the crumbs?
NB: Martin Collings is employed by Amadeus and for reasons of impartiality has specifically excluded any mention of the Amadeus CheckMyTrip mobile app in this article.
The really interesting part about mobile travel apps right now is how much investment is going into this space.
And, equally important, how the improved functionality is making a much more compelling value proposition for the end user.
So I ask the question: is it too late for airlines themselves to own a piece of this?
So who are some of the players to watch:
This is a very competitive space, and the list could be extended to offerings from companies like
Traxo,
Kayak and more, but I've stuck with the ones I am personally watching most closely.
And if you are still not convinced of the potential for mobile apps in travel, take a look at this survey showing the gap between traveller preference and traveller adoption - although somehow I think the mobile disbelievers have disappeared, only to be replaced by the disoriented who are still trying to discover a way to make sense of it all.
They will later to be followed by the disillusioned who will ask why they themselves didn't do anything with mobile back in 2010!
Improved functionality
As a frequent traveller in both Europe and the Asia Pacific region, the amount of times I've been inconvenienced due to last minute flight cancellations or significant delays really has been quite minimal.
And when I have, the airline has typically telephoned or sent an email to warn me. For this reason I was not an early adopter of the mobile itinerary planning apps that touted their real time alerting functionality.
That said, I can definintely see why others, especially those travelling to airports frequently affected by adverse weather conditions, have signed up in their millions. But now, even my resistance has crumbled.
Business social networking really is a powerful way to make travel more productive and more enjoyable, but to date, no technology vendor has really taken full advantage of this.
I remember having lunch with Scott Hintz from Tripit at a CASMA conference in Berlin in October 2007 and we were discussing how some type of partnership with LinkedIn was what they absolutely needed to get traction amongst business travellers.
I was very happy one year later to hear that Tripit were launching the first Linkedin travel application. Business contacts could monitor your travel plans if they were subscribed to email updates from Linkedin.
This was a great start, but there was still a lot of room to make the process work more smoothly.
Tripit have for a long time had the ability to invite people as connections/friends, but this was of limited use up until now as most people would never initiate an entirely new social network (ie. replicate what they already have elsewhere on Linkedin or Facebook) just for a travel site.
I imagine Worldmate learnt a similar lesson after they launched their own social network in May 2008. Both companies now appear to have changed for the better.
One partial way around the problem above of starting a whole new social network is what Tripit have done with their recently launched Groups. It allows people sharing the same company email domain to see where their colleagues are travelling at any point in time.
It still amazes me that more companies don't make use of this type of functionality, and Tripit are clearly going after a subset of the Cornerstone business called iBank. Many companies are currently paying good money to see where employees are travelling at any point in time, but Tripit will surely be putting some downward pricing pressure on this valuable product.
This model sounds a bit like the early days of Salesforce.com - sales management software was previously sold at the corporate level, but the new entrant sold to individuals who did not want to go through a central procurement office.
The resulting user adoption become so widespread and the users so passionate, that in the end the corporation had no choice but to succumb. Tripit will be hoping for a similar groundswell of mid level manager acceptance to overcome established players like Cornerstone.
The one big disadvantage Tripit will face initially is non compliance in forwarding itinerary emails. Unless someone centrally (maybe the TMC implant in a large company) forces every itinerary email to be BCCed to Tripit, the system will have too many gaps to be truly effective.
Worldmate are also moving forward in a very valuable way by seemingly making even better use of LinkedIn data than Tripit. Rather than getting an email from Linkedin on your contacts and their travel plans, Worldmate incorporates this into the mobile itinerary planner - as they themselves say, even elite travelers eat alone on the road.
Where this becomes really powerful, and Worldmate are not there yet, is when my LinkedIn location is updated regardless of whether I am using Worldmate, Tripit, Tripit Groups, Cornerstone or any other program or supplier, and then this information is matched with the itinerary planner on my smart phone.
Clearly LinkedIn are sitting in the box seat on this one (apart from maybe some large corporations who also wield influence in making this tool valuable) as what is needed is either one central repository on location, or mobile app creaters who try and assimilate this information from multiple sources.
Using GPS on the phone to track location is too intrusive to get mass adoption, so it will be interesting to watch how it all pans out.
So what about the airlines?
First of all, why even ask about the airlines? Many readers will already know that I've been writing on innovation in airline direct sales channels for over a year on my own blog, so whether I am writing about ancillary revenue, social networking, mobile, or any other travel related topic, I always try and come at it from an airline direct angle.
But which airlines am I watching, and why?
So far in this piece, Virgin Blue is the only airline I've mentioned by name. The airline's general manager of marketing, Michelle Lee, was quoted recently talking about mobile, and it appears from the CEO's comments that the deal was actually done with RIM who probably referred it to Worldmate as part of their investment in the company.
I don't know Lee personally, but I've heard staff at Virgin Blue speak highly of her passion for taking the airline into the forefront of social business.
She has a good quote about Blackberry being chosen as the preferred platform because "we recognise [it] as the preferred device for business customers. Part of our ‘new world' strategy is we are trying to reposition ourselves as the carrier-of-choice for the business segment."
Using a mobile app, and possibly even the social networking components within that app, as a way to reposition a former LCC to attract a higher yielding customer is a great way to think about the new opportunities being presented to airlines via mobile technology .
Another point I mentioned earlier was the partnership between Mobiata and Farelogix; the reason this is particularly interesting is because they are also working directly with airlines.
Ben Kazez is the founder of Mobiata and when I was talking to him earlier this week I asked about where he saw the real opportunity in working with airlines: merchandizing was one of the first words he said.
Service recovery was also mentioned (example given of notifying someone about free wifi if their flight is delayed), but he was passionate about the opportunity for selling seat upgrades and lounge access via a mobile app.
On the question of whether an airline could build this for themselves he was quick to emphasise Mobiata's "code tested with hundereds of thousands of users already" and their UI focus that has resulted in strong user acceptance.
My view on selling ancillaries via an app (just like selling via an airline website) is that the issues of payment and fulfillment are always harder than they first appear.
At every airline conference I atttend there is alway some wide eyed newbie with a great product telling airlines "Just add this to your website and watch the money roll in," only to be replaced by another wide eyed newbie with another world changing product at the next conference.
If Mobiata were doing this on their own I'd be much more skeptical, but doing it in the way that they are definintely means they need to be taken very seriously.
There are many more airlines doing interesting things in mobile, but today I've been focussed writing mainly on the dowloadable apps rather than websites optimized for mobile. In reality, for an airline to own this space in their market, the two should be closely intertwined.
Earlier this month United Airlines announced a mobile website where "customers can view their itineraries and, in the event of missed connections, see the flights on which they have been automatically rebooked, rather than waiting in line at the airport for agent assistance" and Finnair have a great feature where they can send an SMS upgrade offer whereby replying to the message sees points deducted from your frequent flier account - a great way of overcoming payment limitations.
So the opportunities in mobile are much bigger than the app, but this piece could easily double in length if I kept going down this path.
The airlines really have the ability to take mobile to the masses - more and more passengers are buying and installing third party itinerary planning and sharing apps by the day; the more mainstream this movement becomes, the less power the airlines will have in influencing the direction it takes.
It is very difficult to displace a frequently used tool loved by its user, but fortunately for airlines these early adopters, even though they number in the millions, are still only a small percentage of travellers actually owning smart phones.
In short, 2010 really is the year for the airline to get serious about its mobile strategy.
So to wrap up, I move away from the airlines and back to the vendors (my own employer clearly excluded).
With Worldmate and Mobiata chasing the airlines, TripIt chasing the corporations and Tripcase chasing the TMCs, will the rest be left chasing the crumbs?
NB: Martin Collings is employed by Amadeus and for reasons of impartiality has specifically excluded any mention of the Amadeus CheckMyTrip mobile app in this article.