PhoCusWright@ITB: Best Practices in Mobile Applications

Highlights from panel discussion:

• Frequent travelers are usually the earlier adapters in mobile technology.
• Don’t just take your existing web content and adapt it to mobile. Create mobile-specific content.
• Notifications of travel changes is what makes the mobile platform unique.
• Many hotel booking systems are too complex to use on a mobile. Will the future bring saved payment/profile information that eases this process?
• In the US, 30% of iPhone users say it replaces their laptop usage
• In Japan, more people access internet on their mobile than with a traditional computer
• For many people in India and China, the mobile internet is their only access to the internet
• Web-based content could eliminate the need to for traditional smartphone apps. However, there are cases when it’s good to have an application that does not rely on internet access.
• The user doesn’t care of your service is an app or online, they only care about ease and speed of use
• Advantage of apps: you can use device-specific features (like iPhone location services)
• Travel suppliers are taking the lead in mobile innovation, not travel intermediaries
• International data roaming is a big barrier and issue to work around