OMG, PCW Missed the Point
Now I may be relatively new to the travel industry, but I’m not new to controversy, so let me get this off my chest.
I like many others were glued to their computers listening to live audio streams of yesterday’s Apple iPad announcement, tweeting away. Now I won’t get into the whole debate as to whether or not the iPad met expectations or not. That’s been discussed ad nauseum, here, here, here and here. But I was reading through my RSS feeds and came across PhoCusWright’s (a leading travel industry analyst firm) take on The iPad Affect on the Travel Industry. Mobile is growing in importance in the travel space, and it figures prominently in the solutions that my firm, Ness Technologies will provide, so I certainly wanted to get their take. But unfortunately, it didn’t take them very long to miss the entire point of the implications of the iPad. Here’s the part that got me:
Yesterday’s iPad announcement…does not mean you need to build another app.
Ugh, you don’t. Let the dust settle on this announcement before drawing up plans for your iPad app. Let’s see how the consumer uses the device and then develop based upon their needs and opportunities.
HELL YES it means you need to redesign your app! I mean why continue to constrain yourself to the capabilities of a tiny screen if you don’t have to? The truth is that the iPad, especially as a super-media-consumption-device will let you do things that can’t be accomplished on a much smaller display. While the iPad looks like a gigantic iTouch, the trick to unlocking the value of the iPad will not be to treat it that way. Imagine the user experience differently. I thought that the MLB.com demo showed how you can significantly improve the user experience and the levels of interaction with the game.
Image credit: gdgt.com
Now imagine how a hotel could completely remake the education and trip planning phases of the traveler lifecycle if they used all 9.7″ of real estate and the touchscreen interface to immerse a potential customer into the experience that the hotel provides, using overlays to show details of rooms, launched video of featured activities, a tour of the spa, whatever. But the point is that instead of a bland website or an app that is transactionally-focused, you can create an experience that should increase the likelihood of them booking.
Bottom line: Don’t judge yesterday’s launch or create your mobile app plans based on what you saw yesterday. Think about what the apps will look like 6 months from now after developers have had a chance to play with the SDK. Now you can wait until the usage model is determined to make your decisions, but by then you will be behind your competition. 2010 is shaping up to be another tough year for the travel industry, don’t make it worse for yourself because you’re waiting to see what the future becomes.
I can partly agree with you – Hotels and destinations in particular could benefit tremendously from the expanded screen real estate and navigational creativity provided by the touch screen interface.
iPad (particularly the 3GS versions) will have significant impact on mobile computing and have created a new paradigm for user engagement & experience.
I’m not an Apple fanboy and I think the absence of Flash inhibits the potential for some great user experiences (This is also the reason I never bought an iPhone and instead use a highly modified & customized HTC Kaiser Windows Mobile phone with a Skyfire browser – full Flash & YouTube support on my phone is a great experience.)
One of the challenges facing the travel industry – and hotels & destinations in particular is that they have been very slow to adopt new technologies. Many travel web sites continue to be predominantly booking oriented without successfully engaging the customer in other phases of the travel process (inspiration, research, planning, validation & sharing.)
There is also good reason to agree with PhoCusWright on its recommendation for travel firms to wait on developing iPad apps. It really comes down to the challenge of resource prioritization and allocation. Many travel firms need to get their digital asset platforms in order before embarking on new App development for a sexy, but relatively small user segment.
My suggestion would be to heed PhoCusWright’s advice earlier in the article and organize all content so it can serve as the hub – and all the channel/device specific implementations as the spokes. In short, the travel companies need to spend their precious resources ensuring that their core infrastructure and content delivery systems are well organized and provide acceptable flexibility to adapt to new delivery paradigms.
There are currently very few iPhone Apps for hotels or destinations, and many websites require substantial work. The iPad is highly disruptive, innovative and will change the way people interact with the internet.
A somewhat overlooked aspect of the iPad was its calendar and diary application – the large format and touch interface will simplify the lives of many who still consider using the computer a chore or necessary evil. I suspect that the iPad will be the first computer of any kind that my wife will truly embrace.
Robert, thanks reading and for the comments. With respect to your comment about travel firms needing to get their digital platforms in order first, I totally agree with that, as would almost anyone who’s visited a travel website in the past. But the choice of doing that first is a very different choice than simply waiting to develop an iPad-specific app because you want to see what others will do. My suggestion is that travel firms, particularly hotels and destinations (as you rightly point out) should take an aggressive rather than a passive stance to the iPad. I just think that if done thoughtfully, it can have a tremendous impact on the education and planning segments of the travel lifecycle and lead to higher booking conversions and more ancillary revenues.
Glenn – good points in your post. Please note: the comments on the PhoCusWright Connect blog were made by one of our syndicated bloggers, not a PhoCusWright analyst. It would be interesting to get the take of our analysts on the implications of the iPad on travel, but my guess is they would agree that new apps would certainly be required to leverage its full potential. I’ll ping a few of them for their perspective, and I’m sure we’ll be covering it in future analysis.
Thanks,
Bruce Rosard
VP Sales and Marketing
PhoCusWright
For starters, the media business, especially print magazines and newspapers, will invest heavily in this new platform. In an interview, President of Condé Nast Digital Sarah Chubb said they are moving fast to make sure they have three to four magazines ready for the iPad’s launch in 60 to 90 days. Chubb: “It’s the most important thing to happen to our business models in a year. It’s really exciting if you are sitting in our shoes.” (read: can save their business!)
I think these media investments will shape a lot of other sectors as they develop for the iPad. And the intersection between content presentation and travel us huge, so the balance of 2010 should be exciting.