Conversation with Aircell Senior Management

For some time I have been talking about ubiquitous computing and the always connected traveler. I just received a briefing from the senior management of Aircell about their plans to implement Wi-Fi connectivity on commercial aircraft. Back in 2001 the buzz about this subject concerned the Boeing Connexion roll out with Lufthansa airlines. Last August Boeing announced that it would be discontinuing the Connexion service. So why will Aircell succeed where Boeing failed? It is all about the technology and business model. Boeing's Connexion equipment was expensive and heavy (1,000 lbs) and needed to be installed when the aircraft was taken out of service. Aircell's technology is lighter and can be installed while the plane sites at a gate overnight. Apart from this advantage, Aircell also has a business model where the airlines share in the revenue (the cost for consumers will be equivalent to Wi-Fi connections in hotel rooms). American Airlines and Virgin America are the two launch customers. In the case of Virgin America the technology will be integrated with the seat back screens allowing all customers to browse the Internet even if they don't have a laptop or PDA. This always connected environment fits well with the airlines' need to sell ancillary services on board for additional revenue sources. In addition, the opportunity to communicate with their best travelers on the aircraft provides some unique CRM capabilities which will likely surface as the Aircell connectivity becomes common place.

Backlash from the Facebook Beacon advertising program

Facebook's attempt to exploit its social network for advertising purposes has raised some major concerns from their users. The Beacon advertising platform is designed to broadcast purchases made by users to their social network. The issue has been taken up by the progressive political organization, MoveOn.org claiming the program violates privacy. Over 50,000 Facebook users have signed the MoveOn.org petition complaining about the privacy issue. The primary problem seems to be in the opt-out strategy taken by Facebook. There is no question that social networks are here to stay and they do influence purchases, especially for travel. The "Where I've Been" application (now owned by Trip Advisor) has been one of the most successful applications on Facebook. Behavioural targeting is also becoming a mainstream advertising strategy that is designed to deliver specific content based on the implicit and explicit behavior of the user. Earlier this year one of the largest players in the behavioral targeting space, Tacoda, was purchased by AOL demonstrating the importance of this emerging advertising trend. Mobile advertising is beginning to become major force as well. Whether planning a complex vacation or buying a HDTV, the opinions of my friends and colleagues do make a difference. The key lesson here is that no matter what the platform (social networks, behavioural targeting or mobile advertising) the user must be in control. Opt-in is the key, not opt-out.

Verizon tears down their walled garden

The announcement this week by Verizon that they are opening up their wireless network has significant importance for the development of new mobile travel applications here in the US. Unlike the rest of the word that operates using GSM technology, Verizon's network is based on CDMA technology developed by Qualcomm. This makes cross networks application development problematic. Despite this limitation, the fact that Verizon has recognized that consumers want to be in control of the applications on their phone is a tremendous step towards a more Internet based model for mobile applications. Details of Verizon's plan are still a bit sketchy but the basic thrust of the announcement is to allow third party developers to create applications that work with the Verizon network without the need to work through the Verizon deck (the deck refers to the allowed mobile applications controlled by the Verizon). Frequent travelers are often the first to embrace next generation wireless technology. In an open environment where 3rd party development is no longer tightly controlled by Verizon, travel specific mobile applications can be created that drive personalized, location based services to the mobile traveler.

Mobile Technology

In his classic book, Smart Mobs, Howard Rheingold described two possible futures for mobile technology. The first is a highly personalized smartphone that filters content based on personal preferences. In this vision the smartphone becomes an electronic personal assist that provides specific content that matches the user's situation, preferences and location. The other vision is an advertising platform that delivers unsolicited offers to the user based on behavioral information collected both explicitly and implicitly. The iPhone certainly represents the first real handheld computer with strong emphasis on browser based search. In a way the iPhone is delivering on the Knowledge Navigator video vision first presented at Mac World in 1988 by then Apple CEO John Scully. Google's Android mobile platform is an effort to both open up the traditional walled-garden created by telecommunication companies as well as an obvious mobile advertising play. I am beginning to believe that both the visions outlined by Howard back in 2002 are being driven by these two tech giants. I am hopeful that privacy concerns (such as the recent backlash regarding the Facebook Beacon advertising platform) will help reign in the trend towards unsolicited advertising. For 2008 I will be working with PhoCusWright on a new special report on mobile technology. As I dive into the mobile research for this project, I hope to identify how the travel industry can profit by implementing mobile apps for the leisure and business traveler. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor for the mobile special report please contact me at norm@traveltechnology.com.

PhoCusWright - Expedia CEO part II

During his closing speech at PhoCusWright, Dara mentioned briefly an effort at Expedia to re-platform their technology infrastructure. So what does re-platform mean? Often the plumbing aspects of travel technology are not a common topic at any show including PhoCusWright, but here the re-platform initiative has a direct bearing on how Expedia works with suppliers. It concerns re-engineering their middleware to better match customer needs with supplier content. In today's online world, OTAs need to provide more flexibility to all their suppliers to manage the delivery of dynamic pricing based on different customer segments. Dara talked about this in relationship to hotels, but airlines are also are demanding a better way to showcase and target their services to specific travelers. This includes selling premium seat assignment or other amenities that can help differentiate their products. A great example is Virgin Atlantic's upper class which provides unique seating and amenities at a lower price point. Traditionally Expedia will show Virgin Atlantic the same as other airlines. Expedia's re-platforming initiative will help suppliers better target customers and use differentiated services to influence the sale at the time of booking.

PhoCusWright - Expedia CEO

Dara began with a nod to the new media based deal with IHG. He said Expedia's focus is to change the traditional impersonal relationship with consumers to be more individualized. Three areas of focus: (1) email (2) Segmentation (3) Search experience - lodging search experience to the next level.
(1) Email - described Amazon's email follow-up after search. Booking window, length of stay, impacting next visit at Expedia. Email as upsell opportunity. Purchase behavior impacts the type of email message generated. Occasion or event triggers for emails are more effect - 20X as effective. Air search with permission send email - 30X conversion rates
(2) Segmentation - demographic mailings. Unique content based on segmentation - Expedia Elite Group - premium service levels - no cancellation or change fees and other services
(3) Personalization - Optimization of lodging sort. Previously anyone would get the same sort. Built an algorithm sorting hotels with goal sending hotel partners more likely to convert and enjoy that hotel. Personalized predictions based on conversion - 30 attributes - kids, which site, length of stay, adding factors for partners inventory levels. Customer reviews

Summary - Long Tail - world is flat. One to one relationship with every traveler.

My comments - All this is not new, but does show a new level of maturity for Expedia in order to better target customer segments verses a vanilla approach traditionally followed by Expedia.

Second Life Discussion-PhoCusWright Day 2

Cathy Schetzina led a discussion of Second Life with STA, Carnival Cruises and Starwood. The primary benefits of launching a Second Life site was described by the panel are PR and gaining experience in a virtual world. The panel agreed that the initial buzz regarding Second Life has faded somewhat lessening the value of free PR that was prevalent earlier this year. Starwood created a new hotel brand in Second Life. The company gained valuable feedback on design and received lots of press. Starwood was prominently featured in Business Week and other general press outlets providing good PR. Starwood has since shut down their Second Life initiative showing that the value was not sustainable. STA emphasized the importance of sponsoring activities such as concerts or dance parties. With STA's primary market being students the fit with Second Life was a natural as a way to each their core campus audience. When Cathy asked whether Second Life is a passing trend or the sign of something in the future, the panel felt that this was only the beginning of trend toward marketing in the virtual world. The bottom line is that Second Life should be viewed as a game and the true impact of online gaming in a virtual world is just beginning.

Live from PhoCuswright - Michelle Peluso CEO Travelocity

Michelle talked about general travel industry themes such as the need for better customer service, air schedule reform and economic indicators pointing to a downturn in the economy. She admitted that OTA interfaces have been stale for some time. She pointed to Travelocity's Experience Finder as a different way to approach travel verses the traditional linear method. She emphasized the data gained from transactions as a valuable tools for suppliers. Talk backers including Randy Peterson from WebFlyer. Randy asked about fare filing problems such as the $59 Tahiti fare mistake asked. Steve Kafner asked about the role of travel search and touted the new relationship with Travelocity. One theme discussed was relevance verses personalization Michelle emphasized that at each stage of the travel process relevance is the key. Travelocity's experience finder works on this model of relevance. Travelocity research conflicts with PCWI research staying that people stay with an OTA despite the desire to shop multiple sites.

Live from PhoCusWright Private Equity - Karl Peterson TPG

The PhoCuswright conference kicked off with discussion of private equity investment in the travel industry with Karl Peterson. Karl emphasized that PE is in for the long run. He disputed the theme of the recent Business Week article which used the term of "strip and flip" referring to the process where PE buys public company, extract profits and then splits up the company into pieces. Philip's questioned Karl's assertion that they are in it for the long haul, as no doubt many in the audience agreed, as a spin rather than a fact. The Business Week article went on to say that the recent credit crunch due to the collapse of the sub prime market has tightened available financing for PE. I believe we have not yet seen the true impact of PE on our industry. Blackstone now owns two GDS brands and three mainframe reservation systems (Apollo, Galileo, and now Worldspan). Sabre is owned by PE. Though all the GDS have offloaded a lot of their content to more inexpensive server based technology, the primary customer information is still tightly bound to the transaction residing on the mainframe. With PE owners now controlling Travelport and Sabre, the true impact of cutbacks and technology overhaul is still not known.

Kango

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting with Yen Lee, president of the new travel search company Kango. For those who do not know Yen, he has an extensive background in online travel most recently as the head of Yahoo! Travel. So what is unique about Kango? The company is building a semantic travel search engine. Rather than simply displaying results of a key word search by PageRank (the method used by Google) , Kango delivers results that are more personalized based on specific attributes entered into the search criteria. Kango is creating an ontology of global travel content that includes ranking of superlatives within review sites. This enables the search engine to rate a given hotel, for example, putting greater value on adjectives such as "This is the best hotel for kids in Monterey California". Kango allows users to search hotels, activities and other travel related content filtered to meet their own specific preferences. In other words, rather than simply searching for a four star hotel in Monterey, Kango users can use specific descriptive words such as "romantic" to identify the most appropriate hotel to meet their needs. Though the idea of segmenting travel search has been introduced by sites such as the Travelocity Experience Finder or Home and Abroad, Kango's backend semantic catalogue represents a different approach. These other experience oriented sites have created a taxonomy of their content enabling an experience oriented search limited to their traditional content. Rather than simply putting content into categories, Kango's ontology defines travel content in terms of superlatives delivering a numeric ranking of search results that integrates mutiple user generated content. This includes review sites such as Trip Advisor and travel blog sites such as Gusto!. This is not simply a repurposing of ratings from these sites. The Kango engine evaluates reviews and blogs of a specific hotel property for example, across multiple sites to deliver a consolidated rating that reflects the descriptive needs of the user. Kango is adding this semantic interperation of travel content not only to traditional hotel information, but also by embracing the Long Tail concept, Kango is including content options such as campgrounds and other disenfranchised elements of travel industry that normally are not included in standard OTA content. Kango's focus is on the planning phase of travel and will refer their users to booking sites for reservations. This is truly an innovative approach to travel planning that has the potential to truly change the way consumers search travel content.

Why Social Networking Matters for the Corporate Travel Market

The BEAT recently covered my NBTA presentation on Web 2.0 and the release of my new study "Corporate Travel Technologies: Today and Tomorrow". In the article Jay projects a somewhat skeptical view on whether social networking apps will ever appear in the corporate travel industry. I understand Jay's skepticism. Throughout my 25 years in the corporate travel industry, I have seen many so-called revolutionary apps announced at trade shows, but never implemented. When it comes to social networking, this trend transcends any specific industry, and thus is a phenomenon that will impact all travel industry segments, even corporate travel! I was talking this morning with the CEO of a new European based social networking platform, Dopplr, that allows individuals to identify other people in their network who are traveling to the same destination. Dopplr's focus is primarily on business travel. With recent PhoCusWright research that shows that 1/2 of all business trips include an extension for leisure activity, identifying other social networking contacts who are at the destination becomes important. Even from a pure business enterprise perspective, identifying other corporate employees who are at the same destination could have additional value for the traveler. Social Networking is here to stay. Still not convinced? Then perhaps it's an age thing! PhoCusWright research also shows that people under 35 are much more familiar with social networking apps than those over 35. This generational gap will be most prominent when the current college age Facebook users enter the workforce.

Why Travel Mash-Ups are Important

As much as the OTAs may position themselves as a one-stop shops for travel planning and booking, the reality is that no single site can make this claim. With the introduction of over 30+ travel sites over the past 2 years, travel content on the Web has never been more fragmented. Sites that provide travel blogs, itinerary sharing and rating systems abound. The future of destination content should include a mash-up of multiple sites such as the recent by American Express regarding their travel mash-up of Travel & Leisure, American Express Publishing and Lonely Planet. In my view consumers would flock to mash-up sites that combine multiple reviews from Trip Advisor, IGOUGO and others, organized around a single hotel search. Obviously copyright issues may be an obstacle, but if the review sites benefit financially through referral income, they may be willing to provide the individual ratings. The same needs to be true for itinerary sharing sites, multiple samples from Realtravel and Gusto! would be beneficial. Mash-ups are here to stay and will continue to play a major role in online travel.

BBC buys Lonely Planet - The Future of Guidbook content

Some may be surprised by the acquisition of Lonely Planet by the BBC. Why would a traditional media giant want travel destination content? What does this mean for the future of guidebooks? There are a number of ways to look at this purchase. Combining Lonely Planet content with BBC video such as Michael Palin's travel series seems an obvious step, but I believe there is more to this transaction. Large media giants such as BBC are challenged by the growth of the Web which is clearly steeling viewers from the traditional broadcast television medium. The BBC is not blind to this trend and has created some interesting user interfaces on the Web. In specific, the BBC has a very creative interactive time line that allows users to drill down to find out information about specific time periods in British History. Rather than offering the user simple historical text, the BBC history time line allows the user to select information that is of particular interest to fit their needs and drill down to the appropriate detail. Applying this approach to Lonely Planet information would be very logical and enable better navigation of the content. With the growth of user generated content and BBC's control over massive libraries of video content, the BBC could use the Lonely Planet acquisition to drive a new model in the market that combines all three of these sources into an interactive display allowing users more flexibility. The integration of multiple sources of content is a natural evolutionary step in destination information and I am hopeful the BBC will use this opportunity to drive a new model in the market.

Corporate Travel Technology: Today and Tomorrow

I am pleased to announce the release of my new study: "Corporate Travel Technology: Today and Tomorrow". The study is now available for immediate download at the Travel Tech Consulting online store: http://traveltechnology.stores.yahoo.net/cotrtetoandt.html

Are Airlines a Commodity?

I am writing from Houston Texas where I attended a consultant's forum sponsored by Continental Airlines. The session was primarily focused on the corporate market , but did include a review of some very impressive stats, including some slides which showed that CO is the best US network carrier for on-time performance and lowest baggage loss.

Part of the session included a meeting with Continental's Chairman & CEO, Larry Kellner and Jeff Smisek, Continental's president. Though I still doubt whether Continental can break the commodity label, these two executives did represent a breath of fresh air. Both gentleman were very open and candid about their plans for expansion, relationship with customers and respect for their employees. I left the meeting wishing Continental had a bigger presence in the San Fransisco Bay Area.

WiMax verses 3G, 4G and Beyond

The Tech industry has been talking about ubiquitous computing for some time. Any observer would agree that it has become common place for business people to multi-task - e.g. listening to a speaker while reading one's email, but the fact is that this only the beginning of our always connected future. An interesting battle has emerged between the traditional telecom players who are offering 3G (Third generation) wireless networks with some now talking about 4G capabilities. An alternative trend is the emergence of WiMax, a broadband technology that could be thought of as Wi-Fi on steroids. With telecom and tech companies such as Sprint and Intel embracing WiMax, many perceive the wireless roadmap as a "fork in the road". Rather than 3G verses WiMax, a blending of the two technologies seems to be more likely. Devices such as the Apple I-Phone with built in WiFi point to a hybrid future where both traditional telecom and WiMax networks co-exist is more likely. The wild card in this game is Google. For many months the blogosphere has been chasing rumors that Google is building their own mobile device that will compete head to head with traditional offerings from Nokia, LG and Motorola as well as the Apple iPhone. No matter which network becomes dominant the days of the always connected traveler are here to stay and all travel companies must develop m-commerce strategies to reflect this fact.

Call Center Point of Sale

Over the last 20 years I have been involved with a number projects involving point of sale UIs for call center agents. Going back to my days with United Airlines when Casto Travel was the first installation on the West Coast for the, at that time new Apollo Focalpoint UI, to recent projects with Alaska.org, Vegas.com and Vail Resorts, I have continued to be disappointed that call center travel technology still lags behind both online UIs and non-travel call center apps. Too often, common wisdom has pushed any call center development effort to the back burner in favor of direct consumer online efforts. The problem with this approach, is a lack of understanding of off-line's role in support of complex online transactions. Another inhibiting factor is the traditional limitations of Web-based interfaces verses robust Windows-based desktop tools. Now that we've seen the formal introduction of AJAX or FLASH in the consumer online travel arena, let's hope similar use of these Web 2.0 tools makes it way to the agent's desktop.

Observations from the NBTA convention

Last week's NBTA's annual convention was billed as the biggest and most successful travel management conference ever. A common question I was asked while roaming the tradeshow floor, "What do you believe was the hot topic at this year's conference?". My response was simplly stated "nothing really new here". In reality I believe more was left unsaid then presented in any particular seminar or general session. For example, Sam Gilliland, CEO of Sabre, presented a panel of ex-airline execs who chatted with Peter Greenberg. I really wanted to know what the private equity buyout of Sabre means to the industry not to mention the Travelport acquition by Blackstone and the recent IPO by Orbitz. Instead the two airline executives talked about the need for high speed rail for the NorthEast corridor (DOH!). A familiar theme in Sam's introduction speech was "you the corporate travel manager, really controls the industry", but is this really true?

Perhaps the problem with this conference is that the position of corporate travel manager is a moving target. This week, I have been updating my NBTA database from 2004 and I immediately noticed about a 70% turnover in names just for the letters A and B! Could it be that the coveted target of the suppliers at the conference is a moving one? Is the position of travel manager a long term career? My apologies to my friends and colleagues who have been in their role for many years, but the reality of the market is that at an average company a new travel manager emerges after about 4-5 years. Why is this? Corporate travel management is not a core competency of any organization (except TMCs that is). There is little room to advance in the position other than adding more commodities to the role if the the CTM is in procurement (as many are moving towards) or moving to other positions in the company. So if I were to conservatively estimate that 50% of all travel managers turnover in a 5 year period, marketing to these individuals becomes a constant re-education effort. No wonder the conference lacks innovation, there are so many newcomers to the position every year, it is nearly impossible to move to start a more forward thinking dialogue.

Browser 3D

Microsoft call this browser as the simple browser.

Most of 3D browser, like was launched by ActiveWorlds and Blaxxun Interactive, become number one for avatar program to chat.

SpaceTime didn't interest with this field. They use 3D just to make more beautiful their visual navigation.
Open YouTube with SpaceTime more impress than direct from YouTube. So try this innovation.

Reactor Never Dark watches glow for ten years

Watches with tritium illumination elements have been around for a while, and while they glow for a long time, they're much dimmer than traditional phosphorescence solutions, which are extremely bright but tend to fade quickly. Reactor's new Never Dark line goes for the best of both worlds, with an extremely bright phosphorescent compound called Superluminova backed up by tritium illumination. According to Reactor, the Superluminova can recharge instantly with even the smallest exposure to light and the tritium remains illuminated for up to ten years. You probably have bigger problems than punctuality if you've been in the dark for ten years, but people expecting the unexpected can expect to fork over $300-$450 for the Reactor Trident, the first Never Dark watch.

CorporateTravel Technology Today and Tomorrow

I am pleased to announce that my most recent corporate travel study: Corporate Travel Technology: Today and Tomorrow is now available for a pre-published order with a discount of $100 (purchase price is normally $600, pre-publication price of $499). In addition if you are attending the NBTA show next week you can receive an additional $100 discount if you order the study by August 31, 2007. The study will be released in mid- late August 2007. This research is the result of intensive review of products and services offered in the corporate travel space. You can check out the table of contents here and purchase the study through the TTCI or PhoCusWright stores.

Here is a link to the flyer we are distributing at next week's NBTA conference.

Japan gets the PSP lite in three additional colors

Filed under: Gaming

Showing a little love for the home crowd, Sony announced today that in addition to the three "basic" colors of black, silver, and white, Japanese PSP fans will also be getting the PSP lite in three metallic pastel shades: Rose Pink, Lavender Purple, and, um, Blue. No word on if we'll ever see these officially make it Stateside, but seeing as the original PSP was unlocked, you can bet some eager graymarketer is getting ready to cash in.

PS. You know Sony should've given the new model an official name when even PSP Fanboy is calling it the "PSP lite."

[Via PSP Fanboy]

Fujitsu LifeBook U1010: The smallest UMPC

Fujitsu LifeBook U1010 was claim by Fujitsu as the smallest Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) in the world. This gadget use Intel Core 2 Duo T7500. This gadget has size 71mm (long) x 133mm (width) x 26,5 - 32,0 (high) and weight just 0,61 kg.

Specification of Fujitsu LifeBook U1010 are memory 1GB, hard disk 40 GB, bluetooth, wireless, slot card CF dan SD, fingerprint sensor, screen 5,6 inchi 1024x600 pixel and operating system by Windows Vista Home Premium.

I'm Back....

My apologies to my loyal blog readers. I was on vacation in Israel for most of June and I have been on the run finishing up various projects since I returned. A couple words of advice concerning travel to Israel. My family and I felt extremely safe during our stay. Don't let the US media make you believe otherwise. As the birth place of three of the world's major religions, visiting Israel is like no other experience. That being said we did have a slight mishap while enjoying the Dead Sea. My cousin's rent-a-car was broken into and about 1/2 our luggage (all the luggage we had with us) was stolen. This included our passports. Though Israel is very safe, personal property is not, especially in remote areas where Bedouin's live. I am sorry to report, per the Israeli police, that the Bedouin's main source of income is theft. So if you do travel to Israel and see a Bedouin wearing a Steely Dan t-shirt, wearing my wife's skirt listing to my son's IPOD, let me know! In reality personal possessions can be replaced. BTW if you ever do lose your passport in Israel I would recommend the consulate in Jerusalem rather than the Embassy in Tel Aviv. They were extremely helpful in getting us temporary passports.

I realize a lot has been happening over the last month in both travel and technology. I hope to make up for lost time this week with a number of entries.

LG FlatronWide L206WU USB monitor comes to North America

Filed under: Displays

LG is announcing today that it's bringing the 20-inch FlatronWide L206WU USB-based monitor to North America. You may have seen the display over at our sister site Engadget Chinese, where you can also check on the specs: in case you don't know Chinese, the L206WU is based around a Samsung SyncMaster 940UX and has a 3,000:1 contrast ratio, 170 degree horizontal / vertical viewing angles, and most importantly eschews DVI and VGA for a USB connection that can be daisy chained over five more displays. Other USB-based display options have generally included some form of built-in lag due to the restrictions of the USB connection, so it'll be interesting to see whether LG and its partner DisplayLink have managed to provide a solution. Price and availability dates are yet to be announced.

NEC spruces up LaVie laptops with 3D paint job

Filed under: Laptops

NEC's LaVie laptops haven't exactly been relying on their looks to get noticed, but the company seems to be trying to change that, recently introducing a new "3D" paint job option for those wanting to stand out in a crowd. According to The Register, the laptops make use of a special metallic paint which, "when surrounded by a magnetic field," magically displays a "hologram-style" pattern.

Otherwise, the laptops appear to be thoroughly ordinary, boasting a 15.4-inch display and your choice of AMD Sempron or Turion 64 X2 processors. Not surprisingly, they're also only available in Japan, where they apparently start around the $860 mark

iPhone from Apple: Touch Screen

New Apple innovation iPhone was launched, this gadget is combination between iPod, hand phone, computer and internet browsing. iPhone have touch screen to call and hear the music.

This gadget have moving sensor that can automatically change the screen according position of iPohne. This gadget can you buy at US$499 and have memory up to 4 GB.

Size: 115 x 61 x 11.6 mm
Weight: 135 gram
Display: Touchscreen 3.5 inc, 16 million colors, resolution 320 x 480 pixel
Ringtones: Polyphonic, MP3, Vibrate
Memory: 4 and 8 GB
Konektifitas: GPRS, EDGE, WiFi, Bluetooth, USB
OS: Mac OS X v10.4.8
Messaging: SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
Browser: HTML (Safari)
Color: Hitam
Camera: 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixel, video
Fiture: Google Maps, Widgets applications, iPod audio/video player, PIM including calendar, to-do list, Photo browser/editor, Voice memo, Integrated handsfree
Talktime: 5 hours

Nokia debuts totally fugly 7500 Prism in China

Filed under: CellphonesBy all accounts, Nokia's designers are either on a cutting edge so far into the future and so deeply advanced that we can't understand it, or they've all gone off their medication. The bizarre 7500 Prism (which may or may not be the similarly styled 7900) made its debut at a Nokia fashion event in China today, along with the 8600, 8800 Sirocco, 6110 navigator, 5700 XpressMusic, 6500 classic, 6500 slider and the 3500 -- though none of them were as totally zany looking as the Prism. The phone's specs are at least fairly normal, featuring a 2 megapixel camera, microSD slot, a QVGA screen and rocking the S40 (version 5) OS. It's unclear at this point why the company believes people will want a diamond shaped keyboard, but since the FCC has already approved this model, we'll soon learn if they really do.

evDaytona: electric motocycle with turgid windscreen

Filed under: TransportationFeel like cruising upwards of 93 miles-per-hour on a motorcycle without using a single drop of fuel? How about being absolutely certain that a great egret could hit your windshield without even fazing you? If you're in agreement with those two tidbits, Triumph's evDaytona looks to be the bike for you, as it can go zero to 60 in a mere 2.9 seconds, roll 143 miles on a full charge, and sports a five-year battery life to boot. This aluminum alloy-framed machine sports all the amenities you'd expect to find on your average motorbike, but throws in a ginormous windscreen and removes the need for fossil fuels along the way. Of course, the bike currently still needs DOT approval, and while we've yet to see anything definite on price, word on the street is that this here ride will run you about $77,000 whenever it actually launches.

[Via MotorBiker]

Sony MP3 Flashdisk Review

Flash disk from Sony has good design and have some features that didn't have by other flash disk, this items has 2 type, that is NW-E003 and NW-E005 F

Features and Specification:

- Capacity E003 1GB - E005 2GB
- Bluit in USB Jack
- Support MP3, Atract3
- 3 Minutes charge
- 3 Hours playback
- 28 Hours long play
- FM Tuner

Japan's awash in slim, 120Hz Sharp AQUOS G LCDs

Filed under: Displays, HDTV

Oh boy, 16 new AQUOS LCD models were just announced for Japan. The AQUOS G lineup is available in bottom and side-mounted speaker options ranging in size from 52/46/42/37/32/26-inches. All the sets above 37-inches pack a 120Hz ASV panel with a trio of 1080p capable HDMI inputs, 1x DVI, and more (no component) touting a 2,000:1 contrast and 450cd/m2 brightness. Sharp also managed to slim down all the sets considerably with the 52-incher measure just 11-cm (4.3-inches) thin. On sale in Japan starting August 21st with prices ranging from ¥180,000 ($1,466) to about ¥550,000 ($4,480).

[Via Impress]

Fujitsu's 8.9-inch Lifebook P8240 Vista tablet: 32GB SSD at just 2.1-pounds

Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCs Damn, if you've gone tablet and thought Fujitsu's ultra-portable Lifebook T8140 was hot, then you'd best check their P8240 before opening your wallet. It's not the most powerful convertible in the world with a max configuration sporting a Core Solo U1400 proc and Intel GMA 950 graphics. What it lacks in power however, is more than made up for in portability: 8.9-inch, 1,280 x 768 LCD; up to 32GB SSD or 80GB disk; up to 9.1-hours on extended battery or 4.3-hours in a wee bit of kit weighing just 2.1-pounds. Windows Vista Business will cost ya ¥270,000 (about $2,188) out the gate.

Gallery: Fujitsu's 8.9-inch Lifebook P8240 Vista tablet: 32GB SSD at just 2.1-pounds

Control with Your Mind

It's not a dream, we ca control the gadget just with our mind.

"Brain-Machine Interface", are the device that develop by Hitachi have ability to analytic the blood to brain and translate it to electrical signal that can moving any gadget.

The Hitachi scientist said that this innovation can be the pioneer of remote control for television. So we wait, can they realize it?

Gateway E-295C / C-140 convertible tablet announced

Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCsGateway's keeping on with the convertible tablets, now announcing its latest in the lineup: the E-295C / C-140. Options include:

• Core 2 Duo 1.8 - 2.4GHz options
• 14-inch WXGA (1280 x 768) display, 200 nit brightness
• Wacom digitzer / pen with 256 sensitivity levels (nice!)
• Intel GMA X3100 or ATI Mobility Radeon X2300 graphics
• Up to 4GB RAM, drive options up to 120GB
• Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g, Bluetooth 2.0
• DVD±RW drive, SD / MS / xD media reader, 1394, three USB 2.0 ports, biometric scanner Prices start at $1100, plus there's another shot after the break to whet that whistle.

Continue reading Gateway E-295C / C-140 convertible tablet announced

International marketing 101: Dell's Inspiron US vs Korean launches

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Laptops

Two identical product launches on two continents. Two pictures photographed the same day. Two radically different approaches to marketing.

PSP all-firmware homebrew hack surfaces

Filed under: Gaming

In what undoubtedly will be remembered as a historic and life-changing event for PSP enthusiasts everywhere, a group of coders (Noobz and Archaemic, to be exact) have exploited a loophole in the Ubisoft game Lumines which enables homebrew-ing on all PSP firmware versions, from 1.00 to 3.50. This first ever all-firmware hack is a significant development, as homebrewing up until now has required specific versions (and usually the use of downgraders). No word yet on how Ubisoft feels about being party to this party, but something tells us Sony isn't going to be real stoked.

[Thanks, Craig and Bobb]

Night Vision Digital Camera

Dengan sensor 2000 kali lebih sensitif bisa saja digunakan pada digital camera. Dengan sensor tersebut, gambar dengan cahaya sangat rendah dapat dicapture sebagai photo. Tidak itu saja, pemakaian chip sensor baru memungkinkan binocular mengunakan chip baru sehingga mampu melihat objek dalam kondisi gelap sekalipun.



Masalahnya, apakah produsen digital camera mau mengunakan chip super sensitif tersebut

Panasonic SDHC 16GB memory card

Panasonic keluarkan memory card berkapasitas
16GBKemampuan flash berkapasitas nantinya dapat menampung film tipe :

CBR 1920x1080 sampai 160 menit


VBR 1440x1080 sampai 240 menit


VBR 1440x1080 sampai 360 menit

Fiber optic tablecloth: the new candlelit dinner

Filed under: Misc. GadgetsWe highly doubt LumiGram's Luminous Fiber Optic Tablecloth was designed with power outages in mind, but why hook up a boring string of lamps or fiddle with half melted candles when you can plug this bad boy into the generator? The cloth, which has fiber optics woven throughout, cotton borders, and a Europlug mains adapter, proves most useful when the lights are dimmed, and should prove quite the centerpiece at your next get-together. The illuminating device is available in a trio of sizes, comes in a variety of color schemes, and will cost you a very unappetizing €949 ($1,270) for the privilege.

[Via LuxuryLaunches]

Keepin' it real fake, part LXIV: 2G Shuffle goes dark

Filed under: Portable Audio

Some folks just don't know when to call it quits, and yes, we're looking directly at the Chinese knockoff factories responsible for all of these shameful attempts at ripping the iPod. Of course, this isn't the first time the Shuffle (first-gen or second) has been duped, but this iteration certainly raises the opprobrious bar. Pulling the oh-so-prestigious black color scheme over to the Shuffle side of things, this clone was somehow designed in California but "Assombled" in China, but what else would you expect for a mere $14? More comedy, er, pictures, after the jump.
Continue reading Keepin' it real fake, part LXIV: 2G Shuffle goes dark

New details about the iPhone

Filed under: Cellphones, Features

Remember the winning Engadget commercial, "The Long Arm of Steve Jobs"? We posted it after the break, but finding someone who's spent some serious time with a pre-launch iPhone and getting them to talk is basically a lot like that. Still, we managed to smuggle out some freshly leaked details from a very trusted inside source who's been fooling around with a unit. Here's what they had to say:

The keyboard was simply described as "disappointing". Keyboarding with two thumbs often registers multiple key presses (two or three at a time) resulting in a lot of mistakes. The best way to type is with a single finger (as shown in most of Apple's demos), but two thumbs is supposedly very difficult. After trying it for a number of days our source gave up using their thumbs.

The text auto-correction only works well for simple words, but doesn't work for proper names. We can only assume this bit will get better with time as Apple fills out its predictive text dictionary.

"It won't replace a BlackBerry. It's not good for text input. It's just not a business product."
The touchscreen was said to, in general, require somewhat hard presses to register input, and needs some getting used to.
In addition to its dock, the iPhone comes packaged with a polishing cloth (the thing's supposedly a fingerprint magnet, no surprise) and the usual smallish power adapter.
The Bluetooth headset will debut in the $120 range, and will come with its own dock for charging both the phone and the headset. The headset will feature a miniature magnetic charging interface á la MagSafe.
Click on for more impressions on the headset, browser, YouTube, and more.

Continue reading New details about the iPhone

ViaNase electronic atomizers futurize nasal spray

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets You've probably started to think that all of the really great technological advancements in intranasal drug delivery had come and gone -- but Kurve Technology believes otherwise. The Bothell, WA. based company has just been granted a patent on their "Controlled Particle Dispersion" system, which is used in its electronic atomizers to create tiny, powerful vortices of aerosolized particles (basically small, drug-filled tornadoes), thus delivering medication more effectively to the user. Interestingly, the company's ViaNase ID has a small LCD screen which is used to specify doses, sound reminders, and authenticate or lockout users based on product identification and user IDs, which should make it seriously confusing to the elderly

[Via medGadget]

PSP clockspeed upped to 333MHz after 3.50 firmware update

Filed under: Gaming

Sony has admitted that it sneakily upgraded the PSP's clockspeed to 333MHz (from 266MHz) in the version 3.50 firmware update that was released last month. This admission is confusing for a couple of reasons: for starters, Sony originally underclocked the PSP in order to increase the stated battery life of the console. Does that mean they'll be forced to decrease the stated battery life, so as to avoid false advertisement? It's also rather odd that developers are only now being granted access to the extra MHz oomph, prompting mutterings of a new PSP model which -- as one Joystiq commentator points out -- could take as long to appear as games that take full advantage of the 333MHz clockspeed. Or, maybe this upgrade simply enabled the PSP to cope with all that "remote play" malarkey that 3.50 enabled. That would be the logical assumption.

[Via Joystiq]

Robots To Replace Migrant Fruit Pickers

Vicissidude sends us to Wired for a look at a fruit-harvesting robot being developed in California. Its development has been funded entirely by agricultural associations, concerned by the uncertainty surrounding migrant immigrant labor. Quoting:
"As if the debate over immigration and guest worker programs wasn't complicated enough, now a couple of robots are rolling into the middle of it. Vision Robotics, a San Diego company, is working on a pair of robots that would trundle through orchards plucking oranges, apples or other fruit from the trees. In a few years, troops of these machines could perform the tedious and labor-intensive task of fruit picking that currently employs thousands of migrant workers each season."

Nokia N95 + RC plane = unlimited DIY aerial photography

If you've found yourself tempted by other interesting DIY aerial photography rigs, but spent all your dough on the Nokia N95 instead, you may still be able to make a lifelong (or momentary) dream come true. A pioneering lad over at the N95 Blog has suggested that nearly unlimited high-resolution aerial photography can be yours if you're willing to strap your precious handset to an RC plane and get savvy with Pict'Earth software. The application allows users to create a theoretical Google Earth of their own if the existing imagery isn't up to snuff with their personal standards. Still, we'd have to mull this one over mighty hard before attaching such a valuable communicator to a potential death bed, but feel free to let us know how things go if you can muster the courage.

[ViaAllAboutSymbian]

Microsoft Office Roundtable reviewed

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

The good people over at TMCnet want to keep you covered with their lengthy review of Redmond's five-camera foray into the teleconferencing game, which, as part of Microsoft's Unified Communications Platform, will probably be seeing a lot of action this year. And what are their feelings? Well, they get stoked on its resemblance to the ships in the 1953 version of War of the Worlds, dig the "head-size spatial equalization" (which makes everyone's head the same size, seriously), and think that maybe $3000 is a fair price. The only thing they weren't quite as excited about was the inability to use the panoramic features with non-Ballmerware, but even that appears to be a minor complaint. Still not sure you need one for your startup? Maybe you'd better read the whole thing.

Jet packs for sale! Life insurance sold separately

Filed under: Transportation, WearablesIt looks like those still bemoaning the lack of readily-available jet packs can now finally get a (brief) taste of the 21st century they once envisioned, as Popular Mechanics reports that two different wearable flying contraptions are now available for sale. Coming from Tecnologia Aeroespacial Mexicana and Jetpack International, the jet packs will each give you about 30 seconds of flight time, with Jetpack International's model boasting a slight advantage in speed, topping out at 70 mph. Somewhat reassuringly, each also come complete with the necessary flight training, although we wouldn't expect any less given the $250,000 and $155,000 price tags. Those that take the plunge may be suffering from some buyer's remorse before too long, however, as Jetpack International is reportedly working on a new model that'll give you a full 19 minutes of flight time.

Toshiba trots out a pair of new Tekbright LCDs

As you may have noticed, there's no shortage of new Toshiba products making their debut in Paris this week, to which we can now add a pair of decent, if unremarkable LCD monitors. Available in 20 and 22-inch varieties, these each apparently boast a 1680x1050 resolution, with a 5ms response time, 800:1 contrast ratio, and DVI and VGA ports on the rear (no HDMI), not to mention the all-important pair of built-in speakers. Look for these to set you back 250€ and 295€ (or $335 and $395) when they hit Europe later this month.

Working with 3rd party software developers

I found it interesting that two prominent software companies (if you can call a GDS a software company) one within the travel industry, Sabre, the other the poster child for social computing, Myspace, have both recently come out with rules (or lack of) regarding 3rd party software developers that hook into their systems. In the case of Sabre, there has been a lot recent press around the new fees Sabre is now charging 3rd party applications such as Booking Builder. For Myspace the issue is one of widgets used by third parts to embed content inside their site. The most common example is Youtube whose growth as a company's was significantly driven by MySpace.

In a recent blog entry by Josh Kopelman, Managing Director of First Round Capital (which was also carried on the Always On Network), Josh compared MySpace's lack of a clear "widget road map" to that of Prodigy. "This brings back memories from the early days of the Internet, when companies like Prodigy and AOL were the only online services in town. Despite the launch of the web browser (which unleashed the creation of millions of web sites), AOL and Prodigy initially focused on maintaining their proprietary online environment and controlling everything on their site." "Myspace does not have a formal development program and has blocked several widgets , (and) built their own widgets to compete in certain areas." In contrast, Facebook, Myspace's chief competitor has announced a new development platform encouraging 3rd party applications that work with their site.

Though I recognize that contrasting Sabre's actions to that of Myspace is a bit of an apples and oranges comparison, but the end result is similar with each company trying to protect what they perceive as their proprietary competitive advantage. Like Myspace, Sabre is blocking some third party development , while promoting their own alternative tools (based on Agentware). Hopefully one of the other GDS (Galileo, Amadeus are you listening?) will learn from the Myspace / Facebook battle and take an opposite stance from Sabre, promoting and supporting 3rd party development tools.

Digital Public Space Advertising

I am fan of the 2002 sci-fi movie Minority Report. In the film Tom Cruise is bombarded by digital advertising as he walks through a crowded mall. The ads are triggered by a retina scan personalizing the offering to respond to the character's specific needs. (In the case of the film, Tom Cruise actually replaced his eyes with another character's so the ads reflect that person's preferences).

A recent article in Always On talked about the emergence of adverting in public spaces such as NYC taxi cabs. Combining that with the growth of Behavioral Targeting, the world described in Minority Report is rapidly emerging. Each generation has become more desensitized to the onslaught of media. My 16 year old son is perfectly happy doing his homework, responding to multiple IM messages all while listing to his favorite tunes. I have no doubt that his current ability to manage multiple media inputs will allow him to handle the coming onslaught of personalized advertising. The growth of public space advertising over the next 5 years will be dramatic.

Desktop tools

I met some representatives from OTOlabs at the recent TravelCom conference in Las Vegas in April. Desktop tools such as the Southwest's DING! application have clearly proven their value in creating a more intimate relationship with customers. OTOlabs' is the developer of ThinkDesktop applications such as Vail Resorts' SnowMate. I worked with Vail Resorts (as part of a PhoCusWright engagement) back in 2005. The SnowMate application is a critical tool Vail has successfully used to bond with their best customers. The Southwest DING! application had over 1 million downloads the first six months. Southwest delivers daily messages on special promotions to the desktop of millions of customers reinforcing their image as a low fare leader and bonding the customer to the Southwest brand.

I am a strong believer that providing a small desktop application to deliver personalized information to your customer is an essential component of a Travel 2.0 strategy. To my surprise the OTOlabs folks indicated that other airlines have been very slow to embrace this concept. This is truly baffling considering the transparency of the Web and desire of airlines to develop a closer bond with their best customers.

Service Oriented Architectures

A lot has been written over the last three years about the topic of a service oriented architectures (SOA). The concept refers to a more flexible way to create software using Web services. Rather than creating tightly coupled code that bounds specific functionality within the application, software written using SOA principles creates loosely coupled components that can easily be removed or altered without impacting the entire application. "SOA turns monolithic inflexible applications into hundreds, even thousands of small flexible applications" Gartner research estimates that by 2008, more than 60% of enterprises will use SOA as a “guiding principle” when creating mission-critical applications and processes.”

Understanding the underlying architecture of software has always been a difficult task for a variety of buyers in the travel value chain. Whether it is a corporate travel manager evaluating self-booking software or a leisure travel agency looking at reservation technology, the need to evaluate the underlying software architecture has never been greater.

Often vendors confuse the issue by stressing their use of Web services. Utilizing Web services to connect to disparate sources of content has become the norm in the last 3-4 years. Just because an application uses Web services for connectivity does not mean the software has been written using a SOA approach. As an example, a major hotel chain still uses a mainframe running TPF (an old operating system created by IBM for the GDS) as their central reservation platform. The company has created a Web services layer to aid in the communication with property based system and external channel distributors. This is obviously a good use of Web services but does not reflect a service-oriented architecture. If this chain wanted to do a complete revision of their rate structure, the antiquated mainframe approach would lead to a nightmare of programming tasks. If this application was built using SOA, an overall rate revision would be done with less pain, implemented faster and would not disrupt other modules of the reservation process. Unfortunately for this supplier, SOA theories were not around in the 1970's when the core reservation system was built.

Wireless Travel Applications

Last week I was interviewed by USA Today Weekend regarding mobile technology for the traveler. The premise of the call was focused on the prevalence of IPODs among travelers. The reporter asked some specific questions about downloading audio blogs for use by leisure travelers. The obvious application would allow the provider to segment the traveler population into special interest groups. A guided city tour for a history buff may be quite different from a couple looking for gourmet restaurants. Our conversation went beyond this point to encompass all types of gadgets now carried by frequent leisure or corporate travelers. I mentioned that last year I wrote an article for the PhoCusWright GDX technology subscription service on the hotel room of tomorrow. A common theme within that article is the emergence of multi-media stations in hotel rooms where travelers could hook up their MP3, digital camera or laptop and view the content on new HDTV sets. As always I am interested in any new application being deployed by travel suppliers or intermediaries that enhances the travel experience. If you know of some interesting apps, please let me know.

Web 3.0

First let me apologize to my blog readers for my long absense. I have been juggling a number of different client projects working long hours (which I know is the norm for today's 24/7 business environment). Fortunately three of the projects are closing out this week so I am back.

Lately I've been seeing a number of articles describing Web 3.0. Is Web 3.0 just another buzz word fueling the pundits and press or does it have some substance? One fallacy that is perpetuated by buzz words such as Web 2.0, 3.0 is the impression that the introduction of new technologies and approaches happens all at once negating prior technologies. In reality technology change is evolutionary. For example adding an improved consumer UI using AJAX or Flash to a Travel 1.0 platform may change aspects of the application to be more engaging, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the software is Travel 2.0 throughout its underlying code.

So what is Web 3.0? A common mantra expressed around Web 3.0 is that software will be more pervasive, faster and cheaper to deploy. Web 3.0 applications will understand the semantics of Web sites enabling new levels of machine-to-machine communication. Personalization will filter information to deliver information that is more relevant to the consumer delivered on the device of there choice. Information itself will be dynamically generated reflecting the needs of the supplier to sell perishable inventory. With the travel industry still struggling to integrate Web 2.0 features and functionality (e.g. user generated content, new UIs using AJAX or Flash) the arrival of Web 3.0 will likely take some time to manifest itself in travel applications.

O'Reilly ECT Day #2- Incantations for Muggles: The Role of Ubiquitous Web 2.0 Technologies in Everyday Life

The talk began with this basic premise: How do you balance needs of the users with emerging technologies? The goal of the talk was to use different lens on emerging tech and end-users. The backside of technology development is people. How to segment people which are not like "you" - don't design for oneself or one size fits all. There are four life stages each with a different set of properties- stage one - friends, attention, play/leisure, sex, consumption; stage #2 - Sex, friends , money , play/leisure, labor; stage #3 - labor, family, money, power, property; stage #4 - family, health, religion, hobbies, friends. technology adoption and priorities reflect these four life stages. Corporations are currently driving technology. Corporations need to satisfy shareholders reflecting continuous growth. To monetize the interaction people the user must be passionate about the technology. Unhappy users don't make products stick. Four aspects of modern technology: persistence (never goes away) searchability (ability to find what you want), replicability (what is truth?, the ability to copy), Invisible audiences - (don't have a sense who is in the audience- you don't know who your are talking). All rules of privacy is changing. When things really go mobile will create a new shift in practice - combining location and technology.

O"Reilly ECT - The Coming Age of Magic -Mike Kuniavsky, Co-founder and Principal, ThingM

Ubiquitous computing is moving away from traditional platforms (PC, PDA, smartphone) to include non traditional platforms such running shoes. In 1995 General Magic designed their wireless handheld interface as a desktop. This interface had limited functionality partially due to the desktop metaphor. Extending the desktop metaphor to a wireless device doesn't work with ubiquitous computing. Mike is advocating the use of existing cultural understanding (magic) to describe the behavior of ubiquitous computing objects. Design principles- every day objects (shoes, hammers, hats, plates), they are familiar, physical, no screen , not human, not superhuman, reinforcing the fact that we don't believe in magic. Ambient orb from Ambient Devices looks like a crystal ball. the Nokia medallion - allows communication. Wands (Nintendo Wii), Hitachi Magic wanted. Concept of wands already exists based on embedded technology. The move towards "magic" devices is already happening. The age of magic is coming. Using the magic metaphor should not be an excuse for poor design.

Jeff Hawkins

Jeff is the original founder and designer of Palm. He described human function and how his new company Numenta is developing next generation for intelligent computing. Jeff stated that you can’t get computers to act as humans- visual perception, auditory perception, somatosensory perception, Languages, Adaptive behavior, planning, thinking etc….

What is preventing this? Common wisdom believes:

• Computers are not powerful enough - no longer the case

• Brains are too complex to understand
  

• Brains work on quantum principles
  

• Brains are magic

Reality is not too complex, don’t work on strange principles and we just didn’t understand how they work.

Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM) –

1) Creates a model of its worked

2) Recognizes new patterns

3) Predicts

Generates behavior Numenta Platform for Intelligent Computing (NuPIC)

Simple vision system –

HTM applications areas of focus:

1. Automotive
2. Gaming
3. Network modeling
4. Drug discovery
5. Vision systems
6. Market analysis
7. Business modeling
8. Nurture applications
9. Anything requiring prices timing or high order temporal data
10. Music
11. Language
12. Robotics

Werner Vogels, Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Amazon.com

Mr. Vogels is the VP and CTO of Amazon.com. His talk focused on how Amazon has created an the backbone which can enable small start-ups to reach scale by using the Amazon's infrastructure. The talk centered around how to build a business around ideas verses resources. Amazon services is designed to help a launch new businesses. Building an architecture to deal with peaks 3-4X the average daily transactions is difficult. The 70/30 switch 70% on heavy lifting (infrastructure) and only 30% time investing in actual product development. Amazon chart - service oriented - 150 services together to create a single page. Three parts of infrastructure = EC2 - Compute, S2- Storage - SQS which does Messaging= Web scale computing. Web-scale computing turns huge fixed costs into a variable cost. scalable-increase or decrease capacity impacts cost Effective - low rate pay-as you-go, Reliable and Simple- SOAP and REST based computing. Simple storage service 15 cents per Gigabyte per month and 20cents a GB data transfer. Why can't the GDS follow this model. Rather than owning the transaction, how about owning the infrastructure?
.

VC Forum - Web 2.0 and Wall Street

Panel with Tim O"Reilly and William H. Janeway, Vice Chairman, Warburg Pincus and
Peter Bloom, Managing Director, General Atlantic LLC. What can Web 2.0 learn from the financial markets and visa versa? Attributes of Web 2.0 demonstrated on Wall Street. Speed matters. e-Trade strived for a 9 second trade. Average trade on NYSE is now 30 milliseconds. A thousand transaction a second have become the norm. How does this compare with travel transactions which is measured by 2-3 second response time? Web 2.0 economy - network intelligence phenomenon. Focus on transactional efficiency. The pressure of Wall Street to push down the cost of transaction cost down to zero. Profits as "agents" was no longer possible (sound familiar?). Those who had been agents became traders. This is just like a GDS becoming a travel agent (e.g. Travelocity). Now promoting marketplace based on automated trading systems. Technology turning agents into principles. The interaction of computers and human beings. Now computers trade with each other but are shut off switching to human trading during a major drop.

Jeff Jonas - IBM Chief Scientist

Using an story of a cheating Vegas dealer illegally working with a customer to illustrate how data silos don't interact, Jeff introduced the concept of "Enterprise Amnesia". In this story the dealer and customer share a common address - clearly a signal that something is wrong. "Enterprise Amnesia" is when marketing, HR an security departments don't share a common database. Enterprise Intelligence requires persistent context. Data and queries in a single data space. Federated search - just in time context.

Sequence neutrality - identifying the same customer in a database. Database drift is natural and the bigger the wearhouse the more this problem persists.

Live from the O"Reilly Emerging Technology Conference

I am blogging today from the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference in San Diego. In 2006, my friend and colleague Philip Wolf coined the phrase Travel 2.0 to describe the new focus on user-generated content and improved user interfaces in online travel. To all deference to Philip, it was Tim O"Reilly who actually coined the original Web 2.0 phrase to describe the user generated and interface changes that is impacting the entire technology industry. Attending pure technology conferences such as this one, always reinforces the fact that the travel industry continues to lag behind the general tech curve. I will be blogging all day on each topic covered: The agenda can be found here.

After the opening remarks, the first speaker is Jeff Jonas, Distinguished Engineer and Chief Scientist, IBM Entity Analytic.

New Joint Study with PhoCusWright

In an effort to answer my prior blog entry regarding the commodification of self-booking technology, I am pleased to announce a new joint research study with PhoCusWright. As most of you know I have a long association with Philip's organization as an analyst and subcontractor on multiple projects over the last 6 years. In 2003, we jointly published a study on Dynamic Packaging technology. In a similar fashion this new study will look at corporate travel technology trends particularly as it relates to the implementation of Travel 2.0 technology. We are targeting late May- early June for the publication. It will be available as part of the PhoCusWright Channel as well as available both at the PhoCusWright and Travel Tech Consulting online stores.

Here's the abstract:

Abstract: Traditionally the corporate travel market has lagged in the adoption of emerging technologies. Despite this fact, technology for self booking, corporate portals, meetings management, business intelligence, expense management, risk management and the aggregation of content has become a key part of the travel management process. Services, such as consulting and account management also depend heavily on technology for analysis and support. With the emergence of Travel 2.0 technologies in the consumer market, how are corporate providers reacting to these trends? This study will take a look at key TMC and corporate travel software applications reviewing current functionality with an eye on future development. The research will showcase unique product offerings from software developers and TMCs reviewing vendors' plans for adding Travel 2.0 features such as user generated content and rich Internet UIs using technologies such as AJAX.

The World is Flat

In his 2005 book, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman describes the unplanned cascade of technological and social shifts that effectively leveled the economic world, and “accidentally made Beijing, Bangalore and Bethesda next-door neighbors.” I experienced this phenomenon first hand recently evaluating suppliers for a consulting engagement. When it came down to the short list of suppliers that met this DMO's requirements, two companies emerged providing the best fit for my customer's needs. Both of the companies have headquarters in the US, but have approximately 90% of their employees in Asia (India and Sri Lanka). Over last two-three years the majority of travel software companies have either outsourced part of their development to off-shore centers or formally opened branches in places like Bangalore or Saint Petersburg. Eastern Europe and Asia are not only catching up fast, but are quickly passing the US in highly skilled software engineers. To better understand the global impact of the flatting of the world phenomenon take a look at this video: http://www.scottmcleod.org/didyouknow.wmv

Are corporate self booking tools becoming a commodity?

I have been involved with corporate self-booking tools since their inception in the early 1990s. At that time companies such as TravelNet and TTG (now TRX) pioneered a new concept allowing business travelers to book online, but restraining their activity through policy enforcement. Now in 2007 where corporate booking tools have become a mainstream part of a good travel management program, innovation has stalled resulting in a common look and feel across vendors. Many of the corporate tools have embraced the familiar consumer matrix approach pioneered by Orbitz (and quickly copied by Expedia and Travelocity), but other emerging trends are slow to come to the marekt. This is in contrast to new consumer oriented Travel 2.0 companies such as Kayak, Farecast and Farecompare are who are blazing new territory incorporating tools such AJAX and mash-ups to change the stale booking flow common on the big OTAs, but what about the corporate market? Where is the next innovation in corporate tools? My belief is that innovation has already begun and lies in the underlying platform rather than the UI. Yes corporate tools should embrace drag and drop capabilities enabled by AJAX, but at the end of the day you still need to enter your dates, select your flights, hotel and car. How these tools integrate disparate sources and user generated reviews and content will be a space to watch in 2007.