Last year I completed a number of intense research projects on mobile travel trends. This includes two reports for Amadeus -Navigating the Airport of Tomorrow and The Always Connected Traveler: How Mobile will Transform the Future of Air Travel. I also was the lead analyst for the PhoCusWright Special Report Mobile Hits the Mainstream. These projects involved in-depth interviews with technology...
Most agree that an important trend in e-commerce is personalization. This is even more essential in the mobile environment where location, context and personalization form the cornerstone for mobile search and marketing. Disturbing news of late around how mobile devices collect our information has created shockwaves across the Web. This includes the most recent reports on Carrier IQ and...
With all due respect to the classic children’s TV show and game Carmen Sandiego, I have borrowed the show’s tag line having just completed a grueling travel schedule that took me to London, Washington DC, Miami, Rome and Amsterdam all within a five week period. These trips involved client technology engagements and speeches to various audiences. My Miami stop was to participate...
The much anticipated integration between ITA Software and Google arrived today with the launch of Google Flight search. The most visible enhancement in this new interface is the instant loading of fares and schedules when you enter the city pairs. The ability to launch flights from the standard Google box which leads you to the flight page ties general search to flight specific schedules and...
In 2004, I authored and published in conjunction with PhoCusWright a study entitled “Selling Complex Leisure Travel Online- Focus on Dynamic Packaging”. This research described an emerging leisure travel distribution platform based on an N-Tier architecture which blends proprietary content with external connections to deliver dynamic packages that are personalized to...
One of the most influential and clairvoyant books on mobile trends is Howard Rheingold’s 2002 Smart Mobs. Howard accurately predicted many of the trends we now see as common such as: The growth of smartphones The intersection between mobile and social media The use of mobile devices to mobilize protests (thus the term Smart Mobs). This last point came into clear focus with the Middle...
Earlier this year, Amadeus commissioned Travel Tech Consulting to conduct research on airlines mobile trends. The whitepaper “The Always-Connected Traveller: How Mobile Will Transform the Future of Air Travel” combines research from JD Power with interviews of nine airlines from around the world. Augmented with Travel Tech’s ongoing monitoring of mobile airline trends,...
Where do tablets fit into the travel process? The tablet un-tethers the traveler from the desktop whether in a hotel room, at the airport, on an airplane or siting on the living room couch. The tablet itself greatly expands a traveler’s ability to dream and plan a vacation, but what about using a tablet while on holiday? Tablets can be used for both long term and near planning, but how about...
Over the last 10 years I have been a vocal advocate of the growing impact of mobile technology on the travel experience. I have written numerous articles, research reports, and I have given a number of speeches on the subject, including most recently a keynote address at the Amadeus Airline e-Commerce Conference last month in Cannes (more about that research and presentation in an upcoming...
The news this week that USAir has filled a suit against Sabre based on violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act comes on the heals of a similar lawsuit filled by AA against Travelport last week. These lawsuits may foretell serious disruption to the traditional travel distribution ecosystem. Most observers would agree that the GDS have been an oligopoly for some time and certainly a monopoly...