Friday, October 30, 2009

iBookings on Wotif.com


I appear to be the only person that does not bow at the altar of Apple and own an iPhone.

Many of my friends and colleagues do and regularly gaze at their beloved iPhone with religious zeal.

In March this year, Air New Zealand introduced new technology to allow users of Java enabled phones, including the iPhone to download their boarding passes that can be scanned at kiosks or at the boarding gate and keep up to date with flight details. I must say that I look with envy at those smug travellers breezing through the boarding scanner with their iPhones as I pause to uncurl and turn my old-school paper boarding pass the right way up.

Back in March 2009, 30,000 upwardly mobile Kiwis already had an iPhone and numbers have dramatically increased since then. Air NZ were early adapters and captured an important market of high-end users that are fanatical about their device and will go out of their way to use them.

We were interested to learn that online travel agent, Wotif.com have officially launched their new iPhone interface site this week for users to access its popular accommodation booking website and make a booking by using their iPhone. 

The timing of the interface couldn't be better for Wotif.com as the weeks leading up to Christmas 2010 should be a boom for iPhone sales. Making an accommodation booking for the Christmas/January period with a new iPhone could soon be a popular pastime.

We wonder when similar iPhone applications and interface websites will be launched for popular website booking engines used on motel and hotel home pages?

In the interim, I've decided that I need to join the cult and buy an iPhone!

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