02 December 2008

Mobile phone bookings 'not a reality' in 2009

Mobile phone bookings will not be a reality in 2009 because the technology is not good enough yet.

ThatÃ¢â¬â¢s the view of Mike Atherton, managing director of Mantic Point which provides travel information to travellers via their mobile phone as part of a white label service.

Atherton predicts that consumers will reject the mobile phone as a booking channel until around 2012 to 2014, when 4G technology has established itself and wifi handsets give a good enough experience to users.

He said: Ã¢â¬ÅâœConsumer expectation of user experience is high because people are used to browsing the internet on their PCs.

"At the moment the mobile experience is nowhere near as good as the computer experience in terms of the web and I think there is some way to go yet.

"The thing is that you canÃ¢â¬â¢t transpose the online experience to a mobile phone.Ã¢â¬~

But he added: Ã¢â¬ÅâœAlthough I really canÃ¢â¬â¢t see mobile booking for 2009, what is there and ready to exploited is the possibility quite easily to alter a booking once it has been made and that will really improve the customer experience.

"People are going to start to use SMS more to generate ancillary revenue and to drive the service experiences.

"Consumers will start to decide what sort of messages they want sent to them depending on where they are and what they are doing.Ã¢â¬~

by Dinah Hatch

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Mobile Phone Bookings being made now!

This kind of comment shows a lack of understanding around the options that are available today 'âœand that SMS is just one part of the jigsaw within the solutions that that can be offered to the travel industry. The travel industry is now in a unique position to take advantage of the evolution of technological developments in the mobile industry 'âœand can truly deliver a great mobile internet experience that allows full bookings and secure transactions to the mobile phone-- which is rapidly becoming the users choice of handheld computing device, that can make phone calls as well.! We now have ï® High speed network mobile network capability with the successful implementation of 3G and HSDPA ( High Speed Downlink Packet Access) that give memorable connectivity capability 'âœtherefore no longer an obstacle ï® We have the compute and browse capability in the handsets, especially with smartphones , that give an easy to use, highly performant experience for the user 'âœ therefore no longer an obstacle ï® And the operators have introduced tariffs that mean that users can happily download substantial amounts of data without running up significant bills 'âœand this will continue to improve as EC legislation drives roaming charges down on an ongoing basis 'âœtherefore no longer an obstacle Where there does become a challenge is the packaging up of the internet content to be delivered to the handset in a manner that makes it useable and with the capability to complete secure transactions. That's where it is important to have the expertise from companies like Handy that know how to deliver this content to any internet enabled phone in such a way that users can make bookings and purchases and where companies such as Hertz, Hotels4U and HolidayExtras are already taking advantage of this type of environment. Anybody can see this by texting '˜handy' to 61177. This is where we need to continue to educate the world 'âœthe time IS here for the mobile phone to become an integral part of the travel industry supply chain, extending distribution channels in a cost effective manner to reach even more of their potential clients.

By Peter Deane, Tuesday, December 2, 2008