The approaching wave of mobile OS travel buttons (Apple iTravel, Google Travel, Bing!Travel Mobile) need to be viewed within a historical context of travel distribution. At the heart of these efforts is a new customer interface for travel.

During the pre-Web days, traditional travel agents controlled distribution through their mastery of GDS cryptic formats. A travel agents’ worth (especially in a corporate travel setting) was often gauged by their proficiency on the GDS. The customer often viewed the travel agent’s systems as a black box with almost mystical capabilities. In this environment the only consumer interface to travel was the telephone or face-to-face conversations with a travel agent.

The Web created a new era of transparency for the travel process. Supplier sites, Online Travel Agents (OTAs) and meta-search engines suddenly removed the mystery behind travel pricing providing consumers with instant access to travel prices and schedules. This transparency has reshaped all sectors of the industry. Consumers now can compare a variety of sources and book entire vacations online. Even for those remaining traditional travel agents, would quickly admit that their conversations often include “I was looking at prices online and I found…). The Web also has changed the ground rules for distribution. Though the GDS still dominate offline and much of online distribution, direct channels through supplier direct websites and new alternative distribution platforms such as Farelogix (supported by the OpenAxis Group) are causing tensions in the traditional GDS-centric travel distribution ecosystems both economically and through the holding back of ancillary services from traditional distribution channels.

It is my belief we are at the beginning of a radical change in distribution this time triggered by the mobile revolution. With the mass adoption of smartphones and the growing influence of tablets, mobile devices are un-tethering the planning and booking process from the desktop altering consumer behavior and again changing the ground rules for customer interfaces. All the current Web strategies are carrying over to mobile with most major travel companies optimizing their sites for the mobile Web (if not you are in danger of being left behind!) and many travel companies have created native (downloadable) apps for specific devices. The problem with this natural evolution from the Web to mobile is that it has created a fragmented environment where the traveler has to either engage with multiple mobile Web sites or download multiple apps. Shopping multiple Web sites online is not a big issue, but on mobile devices it can be more challenging.  Even the traditional, one-stop-shops, the  OTAs have fragmented their mobile offering reacting to the need for last minute hotel deals. Meta-search may be best positioned for mobile, but these sites lose the ability for continuous engagement, an important mobile opportunity, as the bookings are still spread across multiple sites. Consumers are hungry for a simple integrated mobile travel solution. This is opening the door for the OS travel buttons. Companies such as Apple, Google and Microsoft are masters at user interfaces. There is ample room to simplify the planning and booking process especially with the proper integration of voice, touch and gestures. This could revolutionize mobile travel interfaces. Travel companies need now to innovate with mobile interfaces by adding voice, simplifying steps through storing of preferences, and exploring other new interface methods. Mobile may act as a catalyst for further direct supplier distribution as airlines sell ancillary services on mobile directly to their best customers. Even when the OS buttons arrive they need to hook up to some existing travel e-commerce infrastructure, but the industry can ill afford to let another layer get between themselves and their customers.

Source:  Global Intelligence Alliance

One major debate that persists in the area of mobile development is the question of whether a travel company should create a native (downloadable) app or simply provide a mobile Web application. As part of my upcoming PhoCusWright Webinar Mobile Chaos: Do I Need an App for Every Platform? (next Wednesday September 15th at 12:00 noon), I will discuss this subject.  As a teaser here are some of my thoughts concerning this debate.

An interesting paradox exists in respect to the motivations of travel firms in porting their Website to the mobile Web. Many state that their primary motivation is to make their app available on as many devices as possible at the lowest cost. Though this is an admirable goal, the reality of the mobile Web is that the majority of browsing is happening on smartphones such as the iPhone, Android or the BlackBerry. Therefore if the goal is to reach full feature phones, through these efforts is misdirected. A more important issue is how a normal Web pages appear on today’s smartphones. Even the most sophisticated smartphone browsers still provide a frustrating experience for the user when viewing a normal Web page; therefore, every travel company needs to port their existing Website to the Mobile Web. With more and more browsing happening on the smartphone and with the direct correlation between the frequent traveler and smartphone ownership, the effort to transcode the current Website to be more readable on a mobile Web browser is no longer a luxury, but a mandatory part of every travel company’s mobile strategy. As HTML5 matures, the ability to interact with a phone’s core features such as the GPS, calendar, address book, accelerometer and  compass is emerging.

Source:  Global Intelligence Alliance

As a result, the mobile Web will behave similar to the native app and within the next few years matching native app capabilities. The question then arises, do I need a native app?

The answer is best provided in terms of market segmentation.  To create a native app that simply mirrors the functionality of the current Website, wastes resources and may not yield any significant incremental benefit to the travel company or traveler.  From a market segmentation perspective, the native app should be targeted to your best customers and as a result provide unique functionality that takes advantage of location, personalization and situation.  Recently, Priceline reported that a good majority of its mobile app bookings where coming the same day as the reservation.  Priceline did not disclose whether these bookings had cannibalized their Website bookings or whether they were incremental. The Priceline Negotiator is a good example of a limited function native app that is targeted to specific activity – book last minute hotel or car reservations. Clearly Priceline did their homework to determine the profile of their best customers and the type of function they wanted in a mobile app. Other downloadable apps miss this opportunity and simply mirror Website functionality.  Native apps can provide a travel company with a great opportunity to interact with a company’s best customers, but these applications must be innovative taking advantage of the smartphone’s unique capabilities such as the compass or accelerometer and provide personalized recommendations based on the traveler’s location and situation. It is with this in mind, a travel company can have a successful native app launch. Though most apps seem to first appear on the iPhone the importance of the Android and BlackBerry platforms cannot not be ignored as each has a significant market share. For non-US roll-outs Nokia is an essential platform as well.  We also have the launch of Windows 7  in the fourth quarter of this year and the re-emergence of WebOS under the direction of HP as wild cards to consider as well, not to forget about the explosion of tablets that will hit the market over the next 12 months.  Mobile Chaos will be the norm for some time.

I attended the Eye for Travel TDS Summit last month in London and found the sessions lively and informative while the conference provided some great networking opportunities. The most enjoyable general session was about mobile which had consecutive presentations from Google, RIM, Facebook and Nokia.  For those who were not following my tweets, here are some of the highlights from that session:

1. Robert Hamilton, “Productchef” at Google London emphasized the value of search on mobile for travel and did a series of demos using Google tools:

• Voice search
• Point and search technology using the phone’s camera and compass
• Zero click search using the phone’s accelerometer
• Immediate voice translation from English to German
• Using Google Goggles to translate a French menu to English
• Navigation and driving directions

2. Lesley Hay from RIM

• Showed a stat that 99% of apps are not used. Given the low level of downloadable app adoption on BlackBerry this was an interesting stat to emphasize
• Showcased Worldmate and Tubebuddy as examples of traveler friendly apps

3. David Parfect from Facebook

• Emphasized the importance of providing relevant information to the user on mobile devices
• Stated that 70% of Facebook traffic is outside the US with 100+ million mobile users accessing Facebook
• Showcased the integration of TripAdvisor with Facebook’s Social Graph

4. Robert Rogers from Nokia

• Talked about the Nokia NavTech acquisition which includes an ability to download a map that reduces the need to refresh limiting network traffic for mobile navigation
• Stated that Mobile is not ideal for search

I wish I had snapped a picture of Robert Hamilton’s facial expression when Robert Rogers stated that mobile is not ideal for search. It was priceless and a surprising comment considering the fact that Google’s prior presentation was all about mobile search.

Overall here are my take-aways from the session. Google definitely has a travel focus.  Combine that with last week’s ITA Software acquisition and I believe Google will be incorporating some very interesting travel apps rolled into the native Android platform. Rim Blackberry though still the dominate corporate device is struggling with the app store concept and is not showing any leadership in the travel space. Nokia, though still the largest mobile device manufacturer seems to be in a catch-up mode as far as smartphone devices and apps. Mobile access of Facebook is huge, but David did not address the growing value of location based networking apps such as Foursquare.   Visibly absent from the panel was a representative from Apple (a tough company to get on any travel panel). It would be good to see a discussion of their iTravel patents and better understand their plans for using the mobile phone for travel.

Things are heating up even more on the smartphone front as RIM introduced the new BlackBerry Storm which will be available later this month. RIM’s BlackBerry owns the enterprise smartphone mobile space. Recent surveys we’ve completed as part of the PhoCusWright special report “The Future of Mobile Travel” shows the iPhone gaining ground on the BlackBerry with a significant number of frequent business travelers (at least 4 business trips a year) stating that they are considering an iPhone.
The growing smartphone war has positives and negatives for the travel industry. On the positive side, smartphones patterned after the iPhone will have a more practical mobile Web browser experience. The downside comes in application development. Our research is indicating that downloading applications is a more practical strategy than simply repositioning current Website information. In addition to Apple’s iPhone App store, Google and Blackberry have announced plans to open app stores as well. The cold reality of this trend is that travel companies who are serious about mobile applications will need to port their app to multiple environments. The iPhone SDK is a good development platform but very closed in nature. In contrast the Google Android platform promises to provide a more open environment for mobile platform development. Even Symbian OS now owned by Nokia is talking about a more open computing approach. Those travel suppliers and intermediaries who believe that simply translating their current Website to work with Web browsers on multiple handsets is a sufficient mobile strategy, will need to rethink that approach as smartphones become the standard device for business and leisure travelers. Yes Web browsing is definitely on the iPhone, but even with the ability to use the two finger pinch to zoom in on Web content, there is a major difference between an iPhone app verses viewing a Web page on the Safari browser.

Here is the screenshot for the Travelocity Web page on the iPhone. Yes you can zoom in but this is still not a practical way to book itineraries.

Compare that to the screenshot of the Travelocity iPhone App. Sure the Travelocity app does not have booking capabilities but the UI is much easier and more practical to use for a future booking platform, which BTW our research shows frequent business and leisure travelers want (especially for irregular operations!).

T-Mobile introduced the first Google Android phone this week. This long anticipated new platform combines elements of the iPhone (touch screen) and the Blackberry (pull out keyboard). Since I began researching mobile technology for the “Future of Mobile Travel” special report from PhoCusWright, I have been saying that the iPhone is a game changer. This message became more real to me as I purchased an iPhone earlier this month. Like any device it has its pluses and minuses. The same is true with the new Google Android platform. Both of these phones are shifts in the way people view their mobile device. Here’s my brief take on the two devices and how they will impact the travel experience:
1) The iPhone – The most exciting part of the iPhone is not the phone itself but the combination of the phone’s capability and the large number of inexpensive apps available through the Apple App store. Though downloading apps is nothing new, bypassing the “deck” of the mobile carrier presents a more intuitive, flexible and direct environment to load applications. There are currently 175 apps listed in the travel category and another 121 apps listed in the navigation category. The simple concept of locating yourself though GPS and looking at your immediate surroundings for restaurants, shopping or movie theatres is made simple by apps such as “Nearby” or “Where To”. Surprisingly few travel companies with the exception of the online folks such as Travelocity or TripIt have released iPhone specific apps (though a lot more are on the way). Once travel companies start realizing the ease of distribution available to iPhone users I anticipate many more traditional brands populating the travel category. The iPhone is a mediocre email device particularly for those Blackberry thumb users who can type long letters rapidly from the phone. The email application works fine for me as I normally wait to respond (unless it is an urgent message) until I power up my laptop or desktop. I had no trouble connecting the iPhone to my MS Outlook. The Web browser is another strong element, but even with the larger screen and ability to expand using the two finger pinch, browsing on the iPhone is much improved from other devices but NOT a replacement for the Web. Our research has uncovered the fact that many travel companies are simply porting their current Web pages onto mobile devices and even with the iPhone’s improved graphics, booking travel on the mobile Web browser can be challenging. The other approach of downloaded apps seems to be a much preferred way to penetrate the iPhone market. A strength that Apple has verses Google is the control of the hardware and software. The hardware control includes the firmware (software that is embedded on the hardware) giving greater consistent performance. The message here is simple, all travel companies should develop applications for the iPhone.
2) The T-Mobile G-Phone wants to be both a Blackberry and an iPhone. Surprisingly, currently the T-Mobile version only connects up with Gmail and in fact you need to have a Gmail account to use the G-phone. No doubt Microsoft Exchange may become a future capability, but until it does the G-Phone cannot replace the Blackberry. I will hold off my full evaluation of the device until I actually see the physical phone. My sense is that the Google Android platform can match the iPhone look and feel and simplicity of Web browsing. How apps are created and distributed will be a key element of the success. According to Strategy Analytics, the Android mobile operating system will account for 4 percent of all fourth quarter smartphone sales in the U.S., a small % but likely to grow. If the Android operating system spreads quickly and if developers gravitate to the application development environment, the same ease of use of downloading apps for the Android powered systems may further cement this process as the preferred delivery of travel specific apps, provided a central store is created. If the carriers remain in control your ability to download apps may be limited by the traditional control the carriers have put on new app distribution. The lack of control over the firmware may be an Achilles heal for the G-phone but it is too early to determine if the need to work with a variety of firmware is truly a market inhibiting problem.

Yesterday’s announcement concerning the availability of the iPhone SDK (Software Development Kit) is significant for potential travel application developers. The iPhone has shifted the focus from cell phones to mobile Internet devices with the first full function mobile Web browser. Applications written for the iPhone can be downloaded directly from the Internet bypassing the traditional walled garden of the wireless providers. The announcement specifically emphasized application development for the business market to compete with RIM’s Blackberry, the leading corporate smartphone. Venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers announced it was creating the $100 million iFund to help new developers for the Apple handheld platform. As a result there is a lot money on the table to encourage developers to create corporate oriented apps. Are you listening travel software vendors? That’s the good news.

The bad news goes to the heart of what Apple is about: proprietary software. Though the iPhone design is truly revolutionary, the corporate strategy of a proprietary operating platform environment may constrain development. There is fear among developers that Apple will limit the ability for third-party developers to distribute apps, in the same way they did with the iPod gaming market In addition the ability to write the application once and have it shared across devices is impossible with this proprietary approach. For example many of the current mobile applications are written in Java which can run any device that has a Java Virtual machine (JVM). This week Apple also announced that they will not support a Flash Virtual machine on the iPhone limiting the use of Macromedia’s Flash, a very popular way developers have added animation and desktop functionality to Web apps. In addition, the Telcos are not happy with Apple as the iPhone has eliminated the revenue associated with the control over application distribution that has been a driver for the walled garden approach. A slew of new iPhone like devices is already hitting the market with many more on the near horizon. Apple has again been pivotal in the development of new platforms as it was in the creation of the personal computer, but may fall victim to the same low marketshare fate if open applications environments such as Google’s Android platform take hold allowing a more practical path for cross platform mobile application development. I don’t believe we’ll see the iPhone’s share of the mobile market diminish as it did in the early days of the PC, but limiting third party application development is never a good thing in the age of open source computing.

The Tech industry has been talking about ubiquitous computing for some time. Any observer would agree that it has become common place for business people to multi-task – e.g. listening to a speaker while reading one’s email, but the fact is that this only the beginning of our always connected future. An interesting battle has emerged between the traditional telecom players who are offering 3G (Third generation) wireless networks with some now talking about 4G capabilities. An alternative trend is the emergence of WiMax, a broadband technology that could be thought of as Wi-Fi on steroids. With telecom and tech companies such as Sprint and Intel embracing WiMax, many perceive the wireless roadmap as a “fork in the road”. Rather than 3G verses WiMax, a blending of the two technologies seems to be more likely. Devices such as the Apple I-Phone with built in WiFi point to a hybrid future where both traditional telecom and WiMax networks co-exist is more likely. The wild card in this game is Google. For many months the blogosphere has been chasing rumors that Google is building their own mobile device that will compete head to head with traditional offerings from Nokia, LG and Motorola as well as the Apple iPhone. No matter which network becomes dominant the days of the always connected traveler are here to stay and all travel companies must develop m-commerce strategies to reflect this fact.

Last week I was interviewed by USA Today Weekend regarding mobile technology for the traveler. The premise of the call was focused on the prevalence of IPODs among travelers. The reporter asked some specific questions about downloading audio blogs for use by leisure travelers. The obvious application would allow the provider to segment the traveler population into special interest groups. A guided city tour for a history buff may be quite different from a couple looking for gourmet restaurants. Our conversation went beyond this point to encompass all types of gadgets now carried by frequent leisure or corporate travelers. I mentioned that last year I wrote an article for the PhoCusWright GDX technology subscription service on the hotel room of tomorrow. A common theme within that article is the emergence of multi-media stations in hotel rooms where travelers could hook up their MP3, digital camera or laptop and view the content on new HDTV sets. As always I am interested in any new application being deployed by travel suppliers or intermediaries that enhances the travel experience. If you know of some interesting apps, please let me know.