SMART TALK ADAM WILLIAMS
Adam Williams, brand marketeer and journalist, continues his series of topical articles on OnBoard Entertainment. Adam has worked in the IFE industry for six years
Wireless IFE has arrived
The volume of WiFi networks streaming from every exhibitor at the recent APEX event in Long Beach, California should be a clear indication that wireless IFE has arrived
TABLET wars were once about which IFE vendor offered the best purpose-built solution. Today, the competitors are based in Cupertino and Seoul and are spending millions of dollars to develop and defend a lucrative consumer market that is boiling over into the air.
What passengers bring onboard Rose Yin, analyst in IMS Research’s Aerospace Division reports in the 2012 Passenger Survey: Inflight Connectivity Usage and Experience USA that: “Just under a third of the respondents use tablet PCs on a regular basis in their normal daily life although slightly less respondents (at around 20%) took tablet PCs into the cabin with them.
Laptops and smart phones are still two of the most popular WiFi-enabled devices that are taken into the cabin and used, as only a very small percentage of the general population actually owns a tablet (estimated to be around 5% in the Americas for 2012). Uptake of tablets will continue to increase exponentially as prices decrease with the introduction of cheaper (and smaller) options such as seven- inch models from suppliers such as Google and Amazon”.
Airlines’ sentiment But are airlines ready? IMS Research also reported that 33% of airlines do not feel as if they have enough information to make an “informed decision” about wireless IFE systems. In fact, only 18% felt confident. Winning the coveted 'Best Single Achievement in Passenger Experience', Lufthansa Systems has found a way to overcome this hurdle in marketing its applauded BoardConnect system. Norbert Müller, head of programme management for BoardConnect, explained: “As always, seeing is believing. The best way to overcome
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Lufthansa Systems' BoardConnect solution
misconceptions about wireless IFE is to showcase the solution in practice. We have a fully-equipped laboratory at our head office with an impressive wall full of tablets. Even more impressive are the actual passenger flights we are conducting in Australia and Europe. We have shown that more than 250 passengers can access the system simultaneously.”
Creating the user experience Connectivity provider Row44, whose customer Norwegian Air Shuttle recently won a 2012 Passenger Choice Award for Best Inflight Connectivity & Communications at APEX in Long Beach, has experience creating a uniform user experience. Travis Christ, chief marketing and sales officer, speaks on their
“Laptops and smartphones are still the two most popular WiFi-enabled devices that are taken into the cabin"
approach: “Our foundation is open-sourced Linux code and modular hardware that is eminently flexible, from the most proprietary hardware such as the Ku antenna, which may be swapped out for our Ka antenna when Ka is ready, down to the video streaming software services, which may be updated remotely via satellite at any time. We spend a great deal of resources optimising the services to fit all of the devices in demand, and we work with partners who are experts in those fields. So far the response from our customers has been terrific, and with their help we are getting better every day.”
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