The mobile platform is reshaping the way consumers plan, book and consume travel. In particular, the impact of the iPhone on the travel experience is and will continue to be highly disruptive and progressive. Apple’s iPhone is a new breed of mobile device with distinct features that differentiate it from competitors’ products. The major difference is that, despite its name, the iPhone is much more than a phone. The impact of this smartphone has been quite significant in many respects. It features full Web browsing, a native map application (app), GPS, camera, and video, all of which are important factors contributing to a great user experience. These key elements have made travel the fifth largest apps category with over 2,000 available for download.

Joseph Buhler, senior destination marketing and social media analyst, and author of The iPhone and Travel, reviews some of the top travel apps that make the iPhone a popular and groundbreaking tool for connecting travel companies and travel consumers:

Kayak

The leader in travel metasearch offers an easy to use app. There are four tabs on the home screen for Flights, Hotels, Trends, Airline Phone #. Flights shows the month view and flight dates can be selected by an easy swipe over multiple days on the screen. The nearest departure airport is selected automatically or can be selected manually. Flight results can be sorted based on price, duration or departure time. On the flight details page, prices from multiple airlines are shown and bookings can be made via phone or the supplier Web site. Hotels offers similar functionality, but could be improved by offering a map view of selected hotels. Trends shows a list of the recent best fares for the selected city pair. A chart shows absolute best fares and average low fare for the month at a glance.

Travelocity

The roaming gnome was one of the first iPhone travelers with his own app. This app has tabs for Home, Hotels Near Me, My Trips and Preferences. Home shows flight schedules, gates
and times, and airport delays and includes a Book Now tab to call for reservations. The app is linked to maps and weather forecasts, and features a (very useful) button that shows wait times for security screening. Hotels Near Me allows for location-based search, and the results (sorted by distance) include the hotel’s name, address, star rating, price, link, and, for available hotels, a price for that night. My Trips shows a list of current and past trips booked.

TripIt

This app has quickly become an essential road warrior tool. Its key feature allows users to forward confirmation emails from many travel suppliers to TripIt which then builds an itinerary with all the confirmed service details. Trip Details show the services in itinerary format including appointments entered. The details can also be viewed while in airplane mode, which is useful for finding information during a flight. The Details pages show the services booked and the providers used for the booking. Users can check flight status and locate airports on a map. TripIt promotes social networking by allowing users to share details of their trip and future trips with friends and contacts.

WorldMate

WorldMate is the main competitor to TripIt for the attention of frequent business travelers – one of the top target audiences for travel apps. Worldmate (which has offered a BlackBerry app for some time) offers both free and paid versions of their iPhone app. The latter, “Gold”, sends notifications of flight delays and gate changes to the traveler that, according to some users, arrive earlier than airport-published notifications. The home screen shows the present location and local weather. As with TripIt, the user forwards confirmation emails or e-tickets to the service to build the itinerary. On the Services tab, users can check flight status, search flights and access a currency converter and tip calculator. Book Hotel leads to a booking function provided by hotels.com. Users can use the Hotels Near Me feature or enter their destination.

tripwolf

This app functions as a trip planning and social networking tool and offers a useful set of city guides. A maximum of three individual guides can be accessed from the iPhone at any time, and they can also be downloaded for offline viewing. While in online mode, the guides are fully interactive. Each guide has an introduction that highlights the number of tripwolf user votes. Categories include Not to Miss, Places I Like (for favorites), Nightlife & Entertainment, Eating, Working & Studying and more.

Yelp

Yelp is a well-known location-based app that lets users find a wide range of services near their present location. Yelp also fully integrates user reviews which can be narrowed down to those made by friends in the user’s personal network. Categories include Restaurants, Bars, Coffee & Tea, Banks, Gas & Service Stations, Drugstores, Local Flavor and many more, to locate an eclectic range of items from farmers markets to famous prisons.

Urbanspoon

This app is focused on restaurants and its distinguishing feature is the Shake button. Pressing the button allows users to find restaurants randomly. The feature functions like a slot machine to come up with a randomly selected option as an alternative to scrolling through the list of all places. Users sign up for an account directly or by using Facebook Connect, which allows them to invite friends and start sharing restaurant information via a newsfeed within their personal social network. Integration with a Twitter account allows for direct tweeting from within the app and also the ability to save the tweet as a review of that place.

Hong Kong 720º

This is an example of a very attractive destination marketing app that both helps travelers dream and discover a destination and serves as a location-based tool during a trip. The visual tours and videos are great for trip planning and are helpful during the visit. This app includes directions and a very useful Take Me There feature that displays the sentence “Please take me here” and its Chinese translation in both English and Chinese characters. No more issues with taxi drivers!

This list, while far from complete is a review of innovative and useful iPhone apps for the travel industry. It is not intended as a ranking of popularity – popularity and usefulness are not always parallel. This review will hopefully stimulate further investment and development of mobile travel apps. Mobile is the future of travel communication, distribution and commerce and will connect millions of travelers with travel companies. With the rapid growth of smartphone adoption and penetration of global 3G (and soon 4G) networks, these apps and others will become essential travel tools. They can build inspiration, demand, and even revenue.

PhoCusWright will host a Webinar, The iPhone and The Future of Mobile Travel, September 15, 2009 that illuminates the impact of the mobile platform on the travel industry. The Webinar features research from The iPhone and Travel  and PhoCusWright’s Mobile: The Next Platform for Travel.

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