In case you were at the beach, shaken up by an earthquake or lost power during a hurricane this summer (I did all three in the past month) and somehow missed our webinar on mobile strategy, fear not. We captured the whole thing for you watch on YouTube.

In the webinar, Jean-Noel Lau Keng of Amadeus and I cover

• The state of the mobile industry (for those of you looking for stats)
• Common challenges in approaching mobile development initiatives
• Why mobile has become a critical channel in the travel sector, and how Amadeus are integrating mobile into their products and services
• How Transaction v. Engagement objectives may impact the approach you take to mobile
• The approach Amadeus has taken to address the mobile imperative, unexpected challenges, and the results of the company’s mobile initiative
• What are the 5 key steps your organization should take to implement a successful mobile strategy

If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments.

Join me for a webcast on August 11 at Noon ET/9am PT/6pm CET with our client Amadeus to talk about the latest trends in mobile development!

Mobile technology is the center of customer interaction for competitive businesses today; spurred by the always-connected customer, mobile has become the primary channel for business and consumer communication. While pushing applications to mobile devices is (or should be) on every company’s agenda, it can be difficult to know where or how to begin designing new capabilities and user interfaces for smaller, mobile devices.

Join this webcast featuring Jean-Noel Lau Keng Lun, Senior Manager, Mobility from Amadeus, the leading transaction processor and provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel and tourism industry; and Glenn Gruber, AVP Mobile Solutions from Ness Technologies.

Jean-Noel and Glenn will discuss current trends in the mobile market and the most effective approaches for companies to develop and implement a sound mobile strategy. The discussion will include:

• Why mobile has become a critical channel to Amadeus’ business, and how they are integrating mobile into their products and services
• How Transaction v. Engagement objectives may impact the approach you take to mobile
• The approach Amadeus has taken to address the mobile imperative, unexpected challenges, and the results of the company’s mobile initiative
• What are the 5 key steps your organization should take to implement a successful mobile strategy

We will be monitoring Twitter using #nessmobile during the event. Please tweet questions, topics you would like covered and other comments. We will try to incorporate as many as possible into our session.

Lots of mobile platform announcements this week and that’s even before the Mobile World Congress kicked off. But some big travel industry news too, leading off with…

1. ITA Software renewed its agreement with Orbitz thorugh 2015. This is the first contract that was renewed since the announced acquisition by Google.  This should definitely help clear the way for DOJ approval.
2. Nokia chooses Microsoft for future smartphone OS platform in a move that wasn’t all that surprising.  Well except maybe to this ex-Nokia guy who is more bitter than 4-day old coffee grinds. Some may argue that Nokia should have licensed Android as WP7 has a teeney-tiney market share, but could Nokia have competed on an even field with HTC, Samsung and Motorola selling a modestly different version of the same phone?  At least being one of the few with a WP7 phone gives them a chance to appear different in the marketplace. Scoble agrees. Then again, what HP unveiled the other day makes this an even more difficult task.  Either way, the markets didn’t react well to the news.
3. Many people, including myself, have been advocating for HTML5 and promoting the mobile web over apps. But TechCrunch’s MG Seigler points out that while it all sounds nice, apps are still where the action is.
4. HP re-launches the WebOS platform it got when it bought Palm. All of the elements that make WebOS a delight (I do own an original Palm Pre) are there and improved upon. The only problem is that WebOS has almost no apps to speak of (see previous item). Getting developer mindshare is going to be a problem. And while they brought on a high-powered guy to take on the challenge, it might only be enough to leapfrog RIM. But that’s a pretty low bar. BTW, in retrospect, I think my first take on the HP/Palm acquisition was pretty on target.
5. Traditional web search is increasingly important and feels more and more like a system to be gamed – fairly or not. Here’s an interesting article in the NY Times that delves into the ‘black hat’ shenanigans that JC Penny used to dominate search. Fair tactics? No. But great results as Penny had one of its best recent quarters. The most interesting question about what happened is posed on the last page of the article: “Is it possible that Google was willing to countenance an extensive black-hat campaign because it helped one of its larger advertisers?”
6. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber looks into his crystal ball and sees what Apple will do next in response to the recent announcements from Google, HP, Microsoft and RIM.
7. Cloud provider Rackspace bought Anso Labs, one of the key figures behind the open source PaaS project known as OpenStack, also championed by Rackspace. Many rushed to wonder whether Rackspace will dominate the OpenStack community the way some complain Oracle and IBM have done with Java. Personally I don’t think so. I think Rackspace sees this as a way to maintain leadership in the cloud space and create mindshare with developers.  I believe OpenStack could be a really valuable platform for those looking to move to the cloud, especially those that may deploy on different IaaS providers across multiple geographies.
8. Mary Meeker who was the stat queen while at Morgan Stanley keeps the info flowing at Kleiner, Perkins. Check out her latest presentation.
9. After much pomp and circumstance, Amadeus finally sells Opodo to private equity firms AXA and Permira in a deal valued at €450M.
10. Google touts their new WebM CODEC as the open source future of web video…until MPEG-LA questions whether WebM is based on patents they control. It’s telling that thus far Google hasn’t agreed to indemnify others who use the WebM codec. As an old Vorlon friend of mine used to say: “And so it begins”.

Sorry for the late post, just trying to get things done before the end of the year like everyone else

1. Google is starting to do what every company has feared…biasing results based on the promotion of their own content, not the “authority” and quality of the results. TripAdvisor is the first to feel their wrath, perhaps as a result of their blockade of their content to Google Places.
2. Bing held its “Search Summit”, adding a bunch of features that make it easier for users to get stuff done in search (hmmm, they actually have a theme going when you consider they’re Windows Phone7 ads) using contextual search and natural search techniques.  Pretty cool stuff happening again in Redmond. The natural flight search seems very similar to the kind of stuff that Apple bought Siri for. Apple better get its iTravel app out there soon. Enough with the patents already…ship something.
3. Is Twitter really the next customer service platform or is it just hype? There are great success stories like Comcast Cares and Best Buy’s TwelpForce for sure.  But how broad of an impact is it making? Forrester’s Diane Clarkson has a theory.  I wonder if it aligns with your experiences.
4. All smartphone browsers are not created equal…even across all the variants that are based on Webkit.  A must read for those of you developing mobile web sites.
5. OK, maybe now it’s starting to feel a little bit like a bubble. I mean a company with a lot of users, but limited monetization strategy raising $200M at a $3.7 Billion, with a “B”, valuation? Well maybe until you realize the company we’re talking about is Twitter.
6. In yet another escalation in their battle with American Airlines over AA’s direct connect strategy with Orbitz as the battlefield, Travelport is planning to bias flight results against AA by adding surcharge fees for bookings.  Just really interesting to watch as the world turns.
7. I wouldn’t put this into the “xxx is dead meme”, but Forrester’s Mike Gualtieri may be on to something here. And for all the enterprises who have invested a lot in Java, be sure to read this piece. But as Mike rightly states, there is no need for a stampede away from Java, but it may be time to re-think Java as a go-forward platform.
8. Amadeus’ Martin Collings, delivers an impressive piece as he lays out five convergence trends that will impact online travel in the next year. Well worth reading.
9. Rackspace buys cloud management player, CloudKick.  Rackspace, already known for their customer service orientation, and a provider of cloud and hosting services to many major web properties, has been quietly building up quite the portfolio of cloud management tools and notably introduced the OpenStack platform (a collaboration with NASA). As Cloud Ave’s Krishnan Subramainian implies, Rackspace is lining themselves up a value-added IaaS player, rather than getting caught in the commodity game.
10. Carol Bartz has yet to really explain what Yahoo is and their recent decision to sunset Delicious confuses us even further. TechCrunch’s MG Siegler thinks that this horribly mishandled announcement has killed customer confidence in Yahoo! as a reliable business. On the other hand, GigaOM’s Mathew Ingram believes that it’s better for Yahoo to focus on fewer things and eschew the “we’ll be all things to all people” approach that got Yahoo in this mess to begin with. But as they define what they are not, I still don’t have a clear picture of what Yahoo wants to be.

Sorry for the delay, but I was traveling to Phoenix for the PhoCusWright Conference on Monday and then time sort of got away from me. But enough with the “dog ate my homework” excuses and on with the items I hope you didn’t miss last week:

1. A major shift in the technology analyst world as Ray Wang leads a “constellation” of star analysts to form Constellation Research Group. Ray leaves analyst supergroup Altimeter Group and is the second major defection in the past 2 months (mobile guru Michael Gartenberg left to join Gartner). Ray is joined by industry luminaries Phil Fersht, Sameer Patel, Vinnie Mirchandani, Frank Scavo and Oliver Marks among others.
2. Airbnb raises $7.2M from Sequoia Capital and Greylock Partners to accelerate product development and accelerate global expansion.
3. The standoff between Orbitz and American Airlines escalates. Travelport raises one lawsuit and the war of words continues.
4. HP continues to move away from being a travel services provider to being a direct technology provider with the licensing of RezView NG hotel distribution platform from Pegasus Solutions. Certainly a shot in the arm to Pegasus, but technology companies who have viewed HP/EDS as a reliable implementation partner should now be wary and begin to view them as a competitor. And perhaps clients should wonder whether they’re being offered the best in class solution or just the HP one. Anyone have a view?
5. On a related note, 2 days later, Amadues launches their new SaaS hotel platform. Let me use acronyms to shortcut the story: AHP = CRS + PMS + GDS. The question is whether it will equal new business and help Amadeus create a beachhead in the hotel sector in the US.
6. Oracle and Apple team up to bring Java to Mac OSX. While this will play well to many developers, I believe the real target of the announcement was Google, who is increasingly being cast as the only major tech company who is not abiding by Oracle’s rules regarding Java. Of course in the same week Google ratchets up the stakes with their latest response to Oracle’s lawsuit.
7. Norm Rose tries to cut through the rhetoric in the direct connect v. GDS ‘discussion’. Unfortunately, the truth is that both sides seem as likely to propose a compromise as the Democrats and Republicans.
8. The Silicon Valley talent shortage redux.  So far no free Porsche Boxters.
9. The money is starting to flow into tech startups again and competition for top tech talent is rising again and as a result so are salaries. Now for many these are signs of optimism and excitement. But star-VC Fred Wilson urges people not to get too excited.
10. There was a lot of buzz about Rockmelt, the new social-savvy browser, backed by Netscape wunderkind, and Silicon Valley VC savant, Marc Andreessen, but as I read what was written in the blogosphere, I didn’t see what the big deal was about. Neither did ZDNet’s Phil Wainwright.

As a Tennessee Titans fan I’m still trying to decide whether to be happy or concerned at the acquisition of Randy Moss. Thoughts?

Anyway, on to the best of the week that was:

1. The vacation rental market is heating up and while Google hopes to get a piece with their investment in Homeaway, Pegasus and the VMRA have other ideas.  Even better is this piece by OpenTravel Alliance’s Valyn Perini.
2. Facebook enhances their platform for mobile with single-click sign on using Facebook Connect for mobile apps and opening up their Places API. With over 200M mobile Facebook users already (40% penetration) they don’t need to develop their own phone. They’re already available on every smartphone and many modestly intelligent feature phones. From a travel perspective, the important news is that they’re expanding their support for businesses to provide local deals as a reward for check-ins.
3. It’s always more fun to watch a good game of chicken from the sidelines. This one’s a doozy. American Airlines has threatened to remove all AA flights from Orbitz as of December 1. If it in fact happens, who do you think gets hurt worse?  J.P. Morgan Airlines analyst, Jamie Baker adds some insight into the financial implications.
4. Dell buys SaaS integration house Boomi. Kudos and great exit to Bob Moul, Rick Nucci and the other folks at Boomi. At first I didn’t see this as a great fit for Dell, but CloudAve’s Krishnan a reasonable explanation when he puts it in context with Dell’s acquisition of Perot Systems and their attempt to remake themselves as a services company like IBM and HP before them.  However, I’m still not convinced and think that Phil Wainwright may have the right perspective.
5. Robert Cole goes inside the numbers of Amadeus’ recent Travel Gold Rush 2020 report.
6. Is this the beginning of the social graph cold war? Facebook, which has been chastised for their sometimes lackadaisical position regarding the security/sharing of their members’ personal information, has become very much like the Hotel California – allowing data from third-party sources to come in, but it…or any other personal information…can never leave. Well I guess Google finally said “enough” and has stopped Facebook from allowing users to invite more friends to join by importing their Gmail contacts.
7. Everbread, a relatively new entrant to the flight search engine game announced 3 new clients for their Haystack product (almost a perfect product name, eh?). No disrespect to fellow Tnooz nodes, Stephen Ekbergh and Timothy O’Neill-Dunne, but while nice wins, Everbread still has yet to break through with any premier clients. But I guess at this point positive trends, not raw revenues are the best measure.
8. Good article talking about the value of multi-tenancy from a business alignment perspective, not merely a cost of operations point of view.
9. I think that we can all agree that Farelogix’s Jim Davidson is “not a witch”, but he is nothing if not combative. Another volley in his was with the GDS’ as he responds to Sabre’s 20 Questions.
10. What’s another billion to Larry? Oracle buys eCommerce player ATG to enhance m-Commerce play. Analysis from Forrester’s Brian Walker.

A lot of big news last week from Microsoft, Oracle and IBM agree on the future of Java, the iPad is coming to Verizon and notes from Amadeus Horizons 2010 in San Francisco.

1. Oracle and IBM team up to provide a unified future for Java. Should be good for the developer community for sure. But maybe not so much for Google with respect to the Java patent infringement suit concerning the Android mobile OS. Altimeter Group’s Ray Wang breaks it down.
2. Bing search goes social with Facebook integration.  Microsoft and Facebook announced a new partnership that brings Facebook “Like” and OpenGraph profile search to Bing using “Instant Personalization”.  I expect this will have a big impact for travel, especially for hotel, restaurant and tour/activity search and portends a big challenge for companies like TripAdvisor. And not for nothing, it’s definitely another shot across the bow at Google from both Microsoft and Facebook.
3. Microsoft “Launches” Windows Phone 7…phones to actually follow in a few weeks. While many seem to like the Metro UI, few seem to think it has a chance to succeed. Scoble says all WP7 has going for it is Office integration and that’s not enough. Mary-Jo Foley says Microsoft’s real target for WP7 is feature phone owners. But most feature phones are free or close to it. The initial price with contract for the WP7 devices is $199. This will be a tough road to hoe.
4. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Spirit Airlines’ “edgy” marketing sure gets results.
5. The iPad is coming to Verizon and the iPhone won’t be far behind. Only a few more months and I’m free of my Pre!
6. Amadeus completed its bi-annual Airline IT conference, Horizons 2010. Tnooz’s Dennis Schaal recaps the first day. On the second day the highlight was a terrific talk about the future of technology in travel by Forrester analyst Henry Harteveldt.
7. The worst kept secret is out: Amadeus officially puts Opodo up for sale…er, is “evaluating strategic alternatives” with JP Morgan.
8. A terrific look at the private sale model by Matt Zito.
9. Is there such a thing as too much Cloud Security? Cisco’s Christopher Hoff poses the question.
10. IDC Staranalyst Michael Fauscette keeps the great posts coming. This time he suggests a couple of important fixes to remove barriers to creating a collaborative, social enterprise

Sorry it’s a day or so late, but I was busy playing mini golf and taking a “hike” in the woods with my daughter on Labor Day. Last week was interesting even though many were celebrating the last few moments of summer:

1. Intel realizes that desktops on the wane, mobile devices are actually important.  Thus they’re buying Infineon’s wireless business for $1.4B.
2. Holy Kaw! (ht to Guy) The hotel industry has a $5B hole in its online revenue bucket. Excellent review of how the hotel industry ceded control of pricing and bookings to OTAs, got it back and then lost it again from HeBS.  While the suggestion that hotels try to convert more direct bookings rather than pay fees to OTAs, I don’t think that it’s reasonable to assume as they do the math that hotels could maintain the same level of velocity if they eschewed the OTAs. Hence the dilemma.
3. An innovative use of social gaming, location, RFID and exercise by Vail Resorts. Seems they’re right on the cutting edge in the travel domain.
4. Amadeus signs up two more airlines for their Affinity Shopper platform. More momentum for Amadeus or simply building up their base?
5. More Amadeus news: Amadeus posts impressive results for the first half of 2010.
6. Even more Amadeus news: Trying to take advantage of the concerns around the Google-ITA merger, Amadeus tries to increase its share of the US market with Amadeus Meta Pricer product.
7. Hailing a cab is so Q2 2010. Stop flailing your arms and pick up your phones. UberCab lets you make limo drivers compete for your business. Who wouldn’t rather ride in a CrownVic than be stuffed into a yellow cab?
8. Alex Bainbridge discusses why “Google has more to fear in travel than just regulators”.
9. I love this app: Find out wait times at restaurants BEFORE you leave the house. Very useful for sure, but miles more useful for families with young children who don’t want to go from place to place without knowing if the next wait is longer than the place you just left.
10. Apple’s big music event was very eventful. We learned some of what we thought we knew…a new super-tiny AppleTV (now called iTV), a new version of iTunes, iOS updates (4.1 and 4.2 to harmonize the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad OS streams) and a revamp of the iPod lineup.  But the new iPod lineup, especially the new nano, looks like it has some real winners. But the announcement with the biggest potential is Ping, a new social network that’s focused on music…for now. Even though there’s been a lot of initial negative reaction to it, like many new Apple launches, I don’t think the value will be apparent immediately, but the vision is strong.

Well that was an interesting week: HP’s Hurd and Google’s Wave are out (and IHMO Wave had the more egregious indiscretions), Travelport may finally revive their IPO and a few more things.

1. Is a Travelport IPO in the very near future?
2. LAN Airlines chooses Orbitz over Expedia for dynamic packaging.
3. HP CEO Mark Hurd resigns amidst sexual harassment investigation. The wording of the statement appears as if he admits inappropriate behavior, which if you read it quickly would seem to admit guilt to the charges against him. But it seems as if he’s clear of the sexual misconduct charges, but made several other indiscretions which sealed his fate.
4. Excellent article from GigaOM on the FCC, Net Neutrality and “Reclassification”. Once again it looks like the consumer is screwed by politicians and big business. Interestingly, Google seems to have signed on to the concept of charging premium fees for bandwidth as part of it’s partnership with Verizon.  Pretty surprising move for a company who’s motto is “Don’t be evil”.
5. Google Wave, the hyped piece of software that was going to change the way we collaborate is no more. Remember when you had to beg to get a Wave invite…then found the interface to be confusing and none of your friends or colleagues were on it?  Good times.
6. Apple sacks mobile hardware development head Mark Papermaster, ostensibly as part of the fallout from Antennagate. Now if only his name was Antennamaster things would be very different today
7. Why does the travel industry seem to hate the people at TechCrunch? While many aspects of Michael Arrington’s rant about his recent Delta flight resonated with me, it doesn’t hold a candle to the hilarity of MG Siegler’s “My Bloody Valentine” post about how Expedia screwed up his romantic weekend.
8. The iPhone-to-Verizon rumors are picking up speed again, as it appears Apple has ordered a boatload of CDMA chipsets. But what if this is really for Sprint, rather than Verizon who looks to be getting deeper in bed with Google every day. Sprint only has the HTC EVO and Samsung Galaxy Android phones and has a gaping hole in their lineup where the Palm Pre used to be.
9. OpenTable profits are waaay up. But perhaps more importantly, they’re launching a Groupon-esque service called Spotlight that can provide meals up to half off normal prices. Will other parts of the travel and hospitality industry start adopting this model to drive volume?
10. After four years, Amadeus announces its next generation faring and pricing platform. Tnooz wonders if it’s enough to take on the new breed of fare tool vendors.

Hot industry stats, debates on legislation, an Open Source cloud stack and other news of note:

1. Since Congress has started to take up the question of whether airlines need to be transparent about ancillary fees across channels, in order to allow travelers adequately compare real costs of their choices, Timothy O’Neill-Dunne puts forward the definitive answer. Of course no one in Washington is listening, so this drama will surely last longer than the Microsoft Kin (what wouldn’t?).



2. On a related note, Sabre announces that it will update its “Air Total Pricing” system to enable travel agents and consumers see the total price of their trip, inclusive of ancillary fees before they book. The comparison shopping aspect will be addressed first, but the booking and fulfillment portion of the equation probably won’t be solved until later this year.
3. Forrester Cloud Computing analyst James Staten provides his view on Rackspace’s announcement to Open Source their cloud computing stack. NASA may not have found intelligent life out there, but must think the folks at Rackspace are pretty bright because they are amongst the first to deploy the platform.
4. Shortly after being identified as key competitors by Google, heretofore unheralded start ups Everbread and Vayant go mano-a-mano as Vayant alleges copyright infringement.
5. The continuation of a good week for Apple. First they declare there is no Antenna-gate and then they obliterate earnings estimates with their best quarter ever.  iPads almost outsold Macs and it was the most Macs ever sold in a quarter.
6. To patent or not to patent. That is the question. Great article by Pamela Samuelson from Cal-Berkley on why startups decide to patent…or not.
7. TopGuest, a new location-based travel rewards service has a bunch of notable investors, but more importantly nabs a partnership with the InterContinental Priority Club and IHG’s 4,400 properties.
8. Amadeus released preliminary results of their Guide to Ancillary Revenue in association with leading airline ancillary revenue consultancy IdeaWorks. Some good stats if you missed it.
9. While we have our survey out on what you think about the new Open AXIS Group, Professor Sabena gives us his take.
10. An entertaining and insightful view on the upside of newly passed legislation in NY outlawing the use of private dwellings short-term rentals. While decried by many as propping up the large hotel chains, there are real safety, health and security concerns that this bill protects unsuspecting travelers from.