• Windows Phone Is Finally Getting Ready For Business, But Can It Beat The iPhone? http://t.co/wOCdA7KU #
• More smartphones than PCs shipped in 2011 http://t.co/i4erzqx0 #
• Qualcomm chips complete first successful VoIP-over-LTE to WCDMA handoff http://t.co/LRPHT7CY #
• Peek mobile email device goes offline for good: a talk with Peek CEO Amol Sarva http://t.co/tzgytDWR #
• Sony's Annual Loss to Hit $2.9B – http://t.co/6LD6EXNt #
• Why buy a smartphone when you can lease it? http://t.co/8aQM9m3x #
• Samsung: Galaxy S III will not launch at MWC, due first half of year http://t.co/FPm5hKwd #
• Smartphones growing faster than expectations. Apple is the top smartphone maker, but Samsung is close behind http://t.co/oAxfp3ex #
• Facebook's Revenue Growth Strategy: Ad Targeting By In-App Behavior http://t.co/jWmS76H9 #
• Season of changing CEOs. Sony drops Stringer, names Kazuo Hirai president and CEO http://t.co/noe9kWKg #

• Go here for live notes on Apple's call – Apple's Q1 2012: $46.3B In Revenue, 37M iPhones And 15.4M iPads Sold http://t.co/uKDUj6wo #
• Apple's Q1 hardware sales: 37 million iPhones, 15.43 million iPads, 5.2 million Macs, 15.4 million iPods http://t.co/2ShhGvQE #
• Apple Now Has $97.6 Billion In Cash. Let The Share Buybacks Begin! http://t.co/x5v81m36 #
• Apple Sold More iPads Than HP Sold PCs http://t.co/2ORUIsYN #
• Stat Alert: More connected phones than computers in key markets, says Google http://t.co/wLgyzzv7 #
• Nokia Series 40 phones: 1.5B sold and counting http://t.co/OKqWPa4Z #
• Apple pulls just ahead of Google in U.S. smartphones http://t.co/FyEhnqBR #
• Tackling Self-Driving Cars’ Biggest Questions [VIDEO] http://t.co/LCSdFNPv #
• MegaUpload and the end of a pirate cottage industry http://t.co/D1pAmiRy #
• RIM reboots: @tcarmody on the new CEO, the new board, and the new strategy. http://t.co/r2Pc53So #
• Next Step Into Social Shopping http://t.co/wCVJ2Fnc #
• New data indicates that Nokia is stomping other Windows Phone OEMs http://t.co/OME87k0X #

• Online Commerce Trend: More Spending, Smaller Purchases http://t.co/2wrsLL5U #
• Why 2012 Is the Year of Mobile Advertising – http://t.co/cnrsS4Iz #
• EU online spending estimated to grow 16 percent, reach €232 billion in 2012 http://t.co/onfsZxjm #
• Google announces fourth quarter results, topping $10 billion in profits http://t.co/kRm91sXn #
• Google: 250m Android devices, 700,000 activations per day, 11b Market downloads http://t.co/YQajvIYg #
• Google+ Has 54 Million Daily Active Users, 90 Million Total http://t.co/6p7NWayr #
• iSuppli Agrees With IDC, Gartner: Windows Phone To Surpass iOS By 2015 http://t.co/j85fZFjK #
• Google Commerce Starts The Year Off With A Reorganization http://t.co/Vqfl3JGg #
• VC funding to web startups in 2011 hits decade-long high http://t.co/6FehfwO2 #
• Here's what biz owners need to know about digital couponing in our growing mobile world – http://t.co/7kqzocoK #
• Apple reportedly looking to open Apple Stores in India http://t.co/4sL9PQcO #
• Tablets: the perfect shopping device http://t.co/AaobeTRk #
• Apple to announce tools, platform to ‘digitally destroy’ textbook publishing: http://t.co/2jG3pm0i #
• Consumers Don't Like Shopping Via Branded Apps [INFOGRAPHIC] – http://t.co/SROIOo6x #
• Samsung Breathes Life Into Tizen By Merging With Bada http://t.co/7NA1pzU4 #
• RIM To Release 7-Inch And 10-Inch PlayBooks This Year? http://t.co/6IMzhrwI #

There is a big debate about the viability of tablets market for vendors apart from iPad. I have heard the phrase many times that

There is no tablets market. It is just the iPad market.

In this article I have attempted to evaluate the above hypothesis and arrive at a conclusion one way or the other.

Current State Analysis:

If we look at the current trends, it would appear that Apple is in a dominant position with no vendor being able to provide a credible alternative. Apple had 67% market share at the end of Q3’2011 and no other vendor was close to it (refer the market share data in the chart below). There are close to 40 vendors on Android platform and their combined share is around 27% (dipped from 30% in Q2’11). The largest Android vendor is Samsung and apart from Samsung  (who produces the new 7″ Google Tablet T-Mobile and other popular models) no other vendor has even 1% market share. Motorola Xoom is now not even in the picture. Apple has sold 50 million devices in all till date against the Android sales of 10 million.

RIM and HP had huge plans for the tablets market but within a quarter of launch, HP has decided to quit the market and RIM is struggling. There are indications that RIM might also quit the tablets market if it does not do well after the latest changes in its strategy. Amazon has launched its tablet, kindle Fire but it is yet to hit the market.

All in all, currently there is no player who can even be termed as challenger to Apple.

Future of Tablets

Today, the tablets market is largely undifferentiated with all vendors trying to emulate Apple’s success but this is likely to change very soon as the market matures. I see the following 3 trends emerging that would change the way tablets are market today:

1. Price Discovery: All the vendors attempted to compete with iPad and sold at a similar price. This was a big mistake with the consumers preferring to buy iPad instead of other tablets as the value proposition of other vendors was weak at the same price point. When HP liquidated the stock at $99, their tablets suddenly vanished from the shelves. So much so that HP decided to produce some more tablets. Range of tablets are coming in across various price points mirroring the smartphone market which has products from $100 to $700. RIM has also decided to drop the pricing of the tablets to $249 while Amazon has launched its tablet at $199. I see $100-200 as a very lucrative and viable price segment for tablets. There is certainly a window of opportunity for someone to come up with a low-cost, user-friendly tablet likely built on Android that would have mass market appeal (chances are that it would come from a Chinese vendor).

2. Differentiated Value Proposition: So far the tablets have attempted to target the same consumer segment with similar value proposition. Their attempt has been to be the “Laptop Lite” and replace the netbooks. However, the market is much larger if tablets are not seen as replacement for either smartphones or netbooks. Instead vendors should look at it as a device that has multiple value propositions and we might need different kind of devices to meet those demands. Amazon’s Kindle would appeal to people interest in content and cloud based streaming services while the Chinese players can capture the enterprise segment that need cheap functional tablets. Indian Government’s $35 tablet is a perfect example of targeting a segment (education in this case) with a stripped down tablet.

3. Services Ecosystem: We have all witnessed the success of iPhone and one of the primary reasons for the success of iPhone was the ecosystem that Apple created around the device. Even in tablets, the services ecosystem is likely to play a big role in its success. However, in this ecosystem, the tablets will not be central. Somebody would develop an enterprise application and would sell the device as part of the managed service contract. I see a possibility of a company developing a courier management application on tablets or an order management system thereby creating a huge tablet demand as low end with minimal processing and multimedia capabilities.

Will the iPad party continue forever?

No, I do not think so. Apple is enjoying the high market share till the time people are not able to discover the use of a tablet. Today people are using a tablet as a gaming and browsing device. This is surely going to change once the differentiated value propositions emerge with different use cases. Once the tablets start getting used by sales guys or restaurant order management, the market would surely move beyond iPad.

Kindle Fire is most likely to spoil Apple’s party as it has a very good value proposition in terms of content and has priced the product aggressively. Amazon is subsidizing the Kindle and plans to monetize through content which would be difficult to match by any other competitor except for Apple. In a nutshell, we’re entering a near disposable e-reader/tablet era that will split the market between Amazon (consumption based profits) and Apple (high end brand profits). Every technology company caught in the middle is going to have some serious problems.

I see the Chinese players coming out with cheap tablets and capturing a sizable small and medium enterprise (SME) market. The Chinese players would be very aggressive and would not care so much about the brand and direct distribution as long as they can sell. They would be willing to customize the tablet based on the end user requirements that the bigger players would be reluctant. Their impact on tablets market would be similar to their impact on the mobile phone market.

In the longer term, Android would emerge as the operating system of choice as the cheaper tablets will have no other choice but to go for Android. In the process, the other tablet OS like BBX (RIM Playbook) and WebOS would die the natural death as they lack the applications ecosystem.

In the end, I would say that there is a tablets market besides the iPad market provided the other players create value propositions knowing fully well their strengths and more importantly their brand limitations.

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Mobile internet is very different from the fixed line internet. The browsers can be a good proxy to fragmentation in the operating systems market. The fixed line internet is dominated by 3 browsers with Internet Explorer having a little over 50% market share as it is dominated by Windows operating system. However, in the mobile internet, the most used browser is a little over 20% and the browser share tracks the fortunes of the vendors.

The chart below from Statcounter shows the global market share for mobile browsers. Opera is the most popular mobile browser.

The share for Blackberry browser follows the declining trends in RIM’s appeal. Similarly, Android browser has consistently gained market share since June, 2009 and is now the most popular browser after Opera. Interestingly, iPhone browser has shown a pretty flat share despite increasing popularity of iPhones.

Click on Mobile Browser Market Share to download the excel file of the chart data from Statcounter.com
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A recently released report from Nielsen in the US shows that the demographics of tablet and eReader owners is fast changing. These connected devices are no longer with young males only. The new owners are more likely to be older people as well as females.

In Q3-2010, 62% of tablet owners were below 34 years but by Q2-2011, only 46% of tablet owners are below 34 years of age. Another interesting fact is that eReaders are now more preferred by females . Sixty-one percent of all eReader owners are now female, compared to a mere 46 percent in Q3 2010.

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VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) is a very popular and growing facet of the communication market. Using an Internet connection, you can stream phone calls to anywhere on the planet without using a mobile provider. With VoIP, phone calls are made through the IP network on your computer. Many users access wireless internet whether they are at home or on the go. The marriage of these two technologies seems only natural, but can VoIP be used with wireless Internet?

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Since the launch of iPad, the tablets have caught our attention. Tablets have not been launched by many companies including Amazon which recently launched the tablet. Companies like HP decided to move out of the tablet business because they realized that the tablet market is not up to their expectation. All this makes us to think if there is indeed a tablet market or is it just the hype around iPad that is resulting in high sales of tablets. Till last year I would have agreed with the statement that there is no tablet market but only the iPad market but the suddenly Android seems to have captured a lot of tablet share and the vendors have realized that they need to discover the true pricing for their products. The table below from Strategy Analytics provides the tablets operating system share. Clearly, Android is silently gaining on back of Samsung and smaller vendors.

Nokia Siemens Network (NSN) recently released their forecast on the mobile data consumption. It is interesting to note that the data consumption would increase multiple times by 2020 and an average user would consume 1GB data a day. This would have significant impact on the operators who need to ensure that they stay ahead of the demand by continuously upgrading the networks. The increasing mobile data usage will be the driving force behind the early implementation of LTE and Advanced LTE.

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From this week, I plan to publish one chart a week that should be of interest to all the readers. This week I am publishing the global subscriber base which crossed 5 billion mark last year. Request the readers to give their feedback and let me know what charts they would like to see in the coming weeks

Mobile industry has  been the showcase of Indian growth story in the post liberalization era. In 2010, it added close to 20 million subscribers per month which is more than population of over 150 countries. There are claims that this hyper growth is due to the intense competition among operators. However, it is now clear that the mobile growth story is not as rosy as what it has been made out to be. Hyper competition has lead to over-reporting of subscriber base by not declaring the subscriber churn. On top of this, the tariff war has lead to significant multi-SIM ownership. This means that the real subscriber base is much lower than the reported subscription base. In my estimates, the real subscriber base is just a little over 500 mn (vs. 858 million reported base as on 31st July, 2011).

TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) started to report the active subscriber base based on VLR (Visitor Location Registry) since September last year. This move was necessitated due to the existence of ghost subscribers and TRAI wants to allocate spectrum based on the actual subscribers. VLR is a temporary database of subscribers who are connected to the network at any given point of time. Since each base station in the network is served by one VLR, a subscriber cannot be present in more than one VLR at a time unless he is using multiple handsets or dual SIM handsets. If we assume that number of in-roamers are equal to out-roamers, then it is same to assume that VLR should be an accurate measure of active base in a service network. TRAI reported 602 million subscribers as per VLR in July, 2011 which is only 70% of the reported base. The movement of reported base and the VLR base is in the chart below:

The 602 million VLR base reported by TRAI is an over projection as instead of taking the VLR data at a given point of time, they have given the liberty to the operators to report the highest VLR base in the month. This leads to two types of issues

1. The churn is not taken into account accurately. If I am customer on Airtel network for 10 days in a month and then shifted to Tata for the rest of the month, there is a possibility of double counting
2. Mulitple SIM owners are counted twice as they are likely to use all their SIMs at least one a month

As per Juxtconsult survey, the total number of unique subscribers in India are 407 million (Click here to download Snapshot-Juxt-India-Mobile-2011 report). This number looks low to me given the inherent issues with consumer surveys of this size. I would recon that the real unique subscriber base is somewhere in between 407 and 602 million or in other words it is a little over 500 million. I tried to triangulate the 500 million subscriber base with other available data points like handset market size, ARPU, etc. and this number looks like close to the reality.

However, I am optimistic that the some sanity would soon prevail in the Indian market. One of the executives, who refused to be named, from the operator mentioned that the monthly churn rates have shot-up to 5-8% and for some operators, it is well into double digits. At 6% monthly churn on reported base, the absolute monthly churn comes to 50-55 million. This means that to do 10 million of net additions, the operators are doing 60-65 million gross additions. This level of gross addition is unsustainable as @ $3 customer acquisition cost per customer, the industry spends over $200 million every month in customer acquisition alone plus the cost of the SIMs. Normalcy seems to be returning to the market as we have seen the reported subscriber additions declining to 7 million in July from a peak of 20 million in December last year. I have been told by operator sources that the real subscriber additions have not declined and are stable at 5-6 million per month between December and July. It is just that the operators have reduced their gross additions to control costs and have started to report numbers closer to reality.

Bottom Line

The real subscriber base is ~500 million and rest all are ghost subscribers. This means that the real mobile penetration is still below 50% and not 72% as reported by telecom operators and the real ARPU is closer to Rs 150 (~$3) than the reported ARPU of Rs 100 (~$2).

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This is a guest post

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eCommerce has been a dominant theme of internet for the last one decade. The interest in eCommerce was at its peak during dotcom boom of year 2000 and after the bubble got burst, for a long time there was little activity in this space. However, there is a renewed interest in online commerce in the last 2-3 years due to the economic downturn and with online companies offering great deals and value. By definition, eCommerce is buying and selling of products and services over internet but I like to include the online services that influence the buying decision in the offline world as well. This means even review sites like the TripAdvisor.com are part of eCommerce.In fact, I would like to expand the scope of eCommerce from merely internet to other carriers like voice (telephone) and data (SMS) and hence mobile phones are emerging as key access medium.

Factors driving the online commerce:

1. Creative business models have emerged which are focusing on substantial value to the consumer, e.g. Daily Deal sites offer upto 60-70% discount on services.

2. Merging of online and offline space has created a unique proposition for the consumer rather than only digitizing the commerce, e.g. today the mobile phone users can be informed about the deals in the vicinity leading to higher foot falls in the brick and mortar store. Even the daily deal sites are driving users to the offline stores leading to better profitability for merchants.

3. Greater Consumer Trust on online commerce now due to years of existence and specific steps taken by credit card companies around security. Alternate billing mechanism like Paypal, Alipay have emerged that limit the consumer’s exposure to fraud.

4. Cash on Delivery (COD) is emerging as a leading factor in building trust especially in the eastern countries like China and India. In COD, the risk to the consumer is minimal as the payment is made in cash when the goods are delivered.

5. Economic Downturn has resulted in higher adoption of online commerce as consumers look for cheaper products and deals. A lot of offline merchants are also looking at online channel to increase sales and reduce cost by shrinking the offline presence.

eCommerce Business Models

There are multiple business models for online commerce but they can be broadly classified into three categories:

1. Stores Model- In this model there is a direct online transaction between the buyer and seller. The model is similar to the brick and mortar shop with the only difference being no face to face interaction between the buyer and seller. The seller has to hold inventory and is responsible for the entire supply chain. Within the store model, there are multiple variations like

* Manufacturer selling directly to the consumers thereby removing all the intermediaries, e.g. Dell

* Multi-Branded Retailers selling to the consumers to provide variety, e.g. Amazon

* Flash sales or Private sales sites offering luxury brands at a deep discount to their registered users. This model helps the brands to liquidate their past season products and are put up on the website as a limited period, limited quantity offer, e.g. Gilt Groupe, HauteLook

* Curated products selected by experts are put up for online sale. Here the variety is low but the product quality is very high, e.g. Everlane – finds out the best goods around the web and bring them to the consumer. Everlane has a bunch of curators who are trendsetters within various industries selecting stylish and cool products

* Subscription model is another variation of the store model where for a fixed monthly subscription fee the retailers send the products selected by experts suiting the style and needs of the consumers, e.g. Shoedazzle provides regular supply of shoes for a monthly fee of $39.95 based on the consumer’s style

2. Brokerage Model- The brokerage models brings together the buyers and sellers but do not necessarily participate in the transactions. This model has seen the most innovation in the last one decade and it is expected to continue innovate in the coming years. The various sub-models in this model are:

* Online Market Place - similar to a physical mall where the mall owners do not own the inventory and are not responsible for the supply chain but host the retailers so that the consumers can get options as well as variety. The market place became very popular during the dotcom boom and it is interesting to see that they are still very popular. The market place can be Business to Business (B2B) or Business to Consumers (B2C) or Consumer to Consumer (C2C). The most popular market places are Amazon, TaoBao. TaoBao of China in particular is an interesting C2C  market place which did business of over $30 billion last year

* Group Buying offers products and services at significantly reduced prices on the condition that a minimum number of buyers would make the purchase.  Group Buying sites have suddenly become a rave after the success of Groupon but interestingly, origins of Group buying can be traced to China where Tuángòu or team buying was executed to get discount prices from retailer when a large group of people were willing to buy the same item

* Comparison Shopping model allows individuals to see different lists of prices for specific products. Most price comparison services do not sell products themselves, but source prices from retailers (online and offline) from whom users can buy, e.g. shopping.com, Thefind, Goodzer, Nextag etc. Price comparison sites typically do not charge users anything to use the site. Some, like Newegg, offer online coupons. Instead, they are monetized through payments from retailers who are listed on the site (also called the affiliate fee). Some of the comparison shopping sites have released a mobile application that allows the users to compare pricing while shopping in the offline world

* Online Auction model is one in which participants bid for products and services over the internet. In this model, the site does not own the inventory and is only responsible for conducting the auctions, e.g. eBay. Another interesting variation that has emerged in the last couple of years is unique bid auction which is a type of strategy game related to traditional auctions where the winner is usually the individual with the lowest unique bid. Yet another variation is penny auction, a type of  all-pay auction in which participants must pay a non-refundable fee to place a small incremental bid. When time expires, the last participant to have placed a bid wins the item and also pays the final bid price, which is usually significantly lower than the retail price of the item, e.g. Auctionair

3. Social Commerce – In this model, the social media supports social interaction and user contributions, to assist in the online buying and selling of products and services, e.g. in Shop Socially, users can ask shopping questions to their friends. User usually get their shopping questions answered quickly by their friends who may have already done the research or bought a similar product. User can also share info about their recent purchases to get compliments, comments and reactions from friends.

The above classification of eCommerce models is not mutually exclusive, e.g. the group buying sites would qualify for both brokerage as well as social commerce models. e Commerce is still very small and emerging and hence I expect many model new models to emerge in the next few years. Indeed a very interesting space to watch out for.

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Mobile phones are expected to play a significant role in commerce and identity management in the future and one technology that would make this possible is Near Field Communications.

Near field communication, or NFC, is a set of short-range wireless technologies, typically requiring a distance of 4 cm or less which are designed to interact with consumer electronics, mobile devices and PCs. NFC is similar to radio frequency identification, except that it contains a tag and a reader, facilitating two-way communications. NFC always involves an initiator and a target; the initiator actively generates an RF field that can power a passive target. This enables NFC targets to take very simple form factors such as tags, stickers, key fobs, or cards that do not require batteries. In short, just by waving or tapping the phone, the money or the content can be transferred across devices.

Near Field Communications (NFC) has been in the news since its inception in 2002 by Phillips and Sony. It is one technology that has a lot of potential but still reached near death due to virtually no support from operators and banks. In the last few years a number of trials around payments and access kept the technology alive. Gartner has a concept of hype cycle which it uses effectively to predict the evolution of any technology. It shows that NFC has already crossed the peak of inflated expectation and is likely to get lower mind space going  forward before it starts to get back (refer to adjacent chart).

AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile last month said they would work with Visa and MasterCard on their Isis joint venture, which was established to form a nationwide infrastructure for NFC-enabled mobile payments using mobile handsets in the United States. This coupled with interest in NFC from Apple and Google has resulted in an increase in forecast by many analysts. Currently close to 50 million NFC enabled handsets are sold across to world which is less than 5% of the handset market. However, the NFC enabled devices are  expected to increase at least ten folds over the current level (Refer the forecast below)

The forecasts from different analyst firms vary a lot on the NFC device projections but all agree that it would be significant by 2015. 

Here is a Video on the possibilities on NFC technology. Enjoy!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdD2OKHi4qw

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Mobile Technology is transforming many industries and is making lives of millions of people easier. In the next few articles, I would focus on the use of mobile technology in different industries and processes. In this article, I would elaborate on the use of mobile at Airports.

For a moment lets imagine ourselves at an airport. The images that flash our mind are that of crowded lines, flight delays, people scrambling for their luggage and uncertainty on taxis. This is not a happy situation for both the passenger and the airport authorities. Many people attempt to choose their airlines in a way that the busy and troublesome airports can be avoided leading to loss of revenues for the airports. Airports need to change fast and adopt the latest technology to fulfill the security issues without causing inconvenience to the passengers. Mobile technology can go a long way in providing better experience at the airport and improve processes leading to cost reduction. However, the initial investment would need to be made by the airports and the return on investments may look low initially but if the strategy is played well, then it can soon lead to substantial cost savings or additional revenues for the airports.

There are many areas where the mobile technology can be used at the airport. It can be used to improve the airport processes leading to passenger convenience, and/or increase revenues by generating higher footfalls at the retail points within the airports. Emerging technologies like NFC (Near Field Communications), RFID and indoor positioning along with increasing popularity of devices like smartphones and  tablets would go a long way in making the airports efficient and passenger friendly. The following are some of the use cases for mobile technology at airports:

1. Flight and Airport Information : The first aim of any airport should be to develop a mobile application that provides basic features like real time flight information, terminal maps and check-in facility. The flight information needs to be personalized and timely. The application can also help in booking the taxi at the destination. Heathrow Airport in London has an application that provides the following features:

• Terminal Check
• Comparison of travel options – directions, fares, parking, etc.
• View the latest airport security guide
• Mobile-friendly terminal maps
• Full shop and restaurant listings
• Live flight updates on demand

The application can also have a destination guide so that the passengers can browse important information at leisure (see the demo below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRNKj54snS8

2. Self Service: The next step should be to give a mobile boarding card (bar code or NFC enabled) so that the  passenger can check-in without having to stand in the queue for the check-in counters. For frequent travelers, permanent luggage tags may be issued which the passenger can configure online to include the destination details. The information from the RFID tags can be transmitted to the mobile phones which means that it should be possible for the airports to show the tracking of the luggage from the aircraft to the belt so that the passenger is not worried about the whereabout of the luggage while waiting for it to arrive. Also, the passenger would know when the luggage is likely to arrive.

Self service and automation of processes are likely to result in significant cost reductions due to simplification of processes. The luggage tags with mobile boarding pass should be able to eliminate check-in queues for over 80% of the passengers. This would lead to cost reduction for the airlines as fewer check-in counters would be required to service the passengers. Schiphol Airport uses bar code scan to print the luggage labels for self service. See the demo below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGO9SmTrfV0

3. Indoor Positioning: One of the main advantages of using mobile technology is that the mobile phones can provide location. When a person is outdoors, satellite position can be very accurate but indoor positioning was so far a challenge. However, in the last couple of years reliable indoor positioning mechanisms have emerged that can provide accurate location of the users. The airline/airport staff is always looking for the missing passengers and make continuous announcements on the PA systems. Delayed check-ins sometimes result in delay of flights. With the help of indoor positioning, it would be possible for the airline staff to locate the passenger and ping him to board the flight. I do not know if missing passenger is indeed a key reason for delays but atleast I have got that impression by the pilot’s announcements when the there are no apparent reasons for the delay. Indoor positioning can also show the passengers the route to the gate and how much time it would take to reach the gate. Automatic alarms can be set so that passenger is reminded to start moving to towards the gate some time before the boarding time. This functionality would be particularly useful at large airports like Frankfurt airport. Copenhagen airport uses indoor positioning (demo below) to keep track of its passengers. At the Copenhagen airport. the indoor positioning system is RFID/blue tooth based which is given as a tag on check-in and is also installed on the trolleys so the mobile phone is not really required for tracking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PuqRCSpYAs

Another very important use of the indoor positioning system is to drive the footfalls to the retail outlets. Today, airports are like malls and are huge. The passengers are not aware of the location of the outlets or any promotions that the outlets might be running. With indoor positioning, a customer can see the deals around him or locate the outlets of his interest.

4. Augmented Reality: Augmented reality overlays location specific information over the smartphone or tablet screen. It can be used to improve passenger navigation, provide personalised offer or display other passenger feedback. Copenhagen airport would soon launch an augmented reality application as a way around limitations of indoor geo-localization services allowing passengers to use augmented reality to plan their time inside Copenhagen Airport and to get information on gates, shops, restaurants and other services in a fun and interactive way. Passengers will be able to ‘scan’ the terminals using their iPhone camera, which will then highlight the distance to certain points of interest and provide directions to navigate to them. Malaysian Airlines is using augmented reality application to find the nearest airport and book ticket (demo in the video below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPhoizmFssM

What should be the approach of Airports authorities towards use of mobile technology?

The approach of airport authorities towards use of mobile technology at airport is very critical towards success of the mobile initiative. There is a general tendency to approach mobile application development the same way as website development. However, this approach is a sure shot recipe for disaster. Mobile technology offers so much more than an average website due to features like location, camera, accelerometer, etc. On top of this, the mobile phone is very personal as is always “ON” unlike any website accessing device like laptop. The involvement of any user on a website is much lower than that on mobile phones and hence it is imperative from the brand and facilities perspective that the airport authorities either hire mobile experts or hire consultants who can program manage the implementation of mobile technology for the aurthorities.

The second most important aspect is the clarity on scope of use of mobile technology. It is important that there is a clear understanding amongst all stakeholders on the purpose of the mobile technology. The airport authority can use the mobile technology to either generate more revenues or improve process or both. The clarity on the purpose would define the required involvement of airport authorities. It is recommended that the airport start with the application development and use the mobile for location based services or process improvement in the second phase.

Another contentious issue is on the intellectual property rights of the application. The developers would insist on retaining the IP so that he or she can use the same application at other airports or modify the application in a way to increase its utility in other industries. By retaining the IP, the developers can increase their return on investment. Airport authorities can relinquish their claim on IP but will need to build enough safeguards in the contract so that the developer honors its commitment on a long term basis.

Lastly, use of mobile technology at airports not only improves the processes but can also provide additional advertising revenues to the airport authorities. Airports would do well if they do not confine themselves to within the boundaries of the airport. The airport authorities should see themselves as a part of the travel industry and hence the use of the mobile application should be extended beyond the airport like for booking hotels, taxi, etc. so that the revenue earning potential can be maximised for the airports.