Although most people had somewhat experience of using mobile ticket, mobile ticketing has not yet become a mainstream in the ticketing world in US. Most people, like me, still prefer traditional paper tickets – having something material in hand seems to be more reliable. However, the biggest feature of Apple’s new IPhone, Passbook, aims to push mobile ticketing forward.
Simply put, the Passbook
app is digital storage for your existing boarding pass (or event tickets, or
loyalty cards). “The concept is not new, but the execution has all the
hallmarks you would expect from Apple”: when you arrive at the venue attached
to your ticket, the location-aware iPhone will pop the pass right up on your
screen for easy access and scanning — no paper required.
Here
are several examples of how Passbook works:
- Starbucks will integrate their wildly popular Payment System that will open a card in Passbook app when within a preset distance from a store location. The users will have instant access to the Starbucks Payment Card barcode and present the iPhone to scan as normal.
- Target will be able to present an instant coupon as the user enters the store. The can also notify the user of the balance on registered gift cards.
- When entering an Amtrak train (CalTrain, Path, Subway) platform, Passbook will notify the user of the amount of credit/rides that are available and present a barcode to be scanned by the ticketing agent.
The
advent of Passbook seems to provide a new breakthrough point for companies. For
instance, Fandango -- biggest brand in online movie tickets and
StubHub -- the online and mobile marketplace for event ticket resellers are
expecting to increase their transaction on mobile phones. “For businesses this
means faster, more convenient transactions, better data about customer
behavior, and more accurate management of empty seats or cancelled tickets,” as
indicated by Erica Ogg. The founder and CEO of Tello, Joe Beninato also pointed
out “Most large companies will be figuring out their Passbook strategy at that
point. Some already are.” Therefore, companies, especially those in the movie,
traveling and sports industry, could attract more customers by developing
Passbook-ready-tickets technology.
Another
interesting point is that Passbook would also bring huge impact on location
based social networking sites such as Foursquare: “If Passbook becomes the new
App Store through which you can reach 100MM+ iPhone users, it instantly becomes
a formidable presence. There is much less incentive for merchants and
card issuers alike to work with disparate companies to play in the mobile space
when they can just as well use Apple Passbook as a distribution channel that is
trusted and widely used. For example, the great local merchant deals that
American Express has been offering on Foursquare - will that continue if AMEX
can use Passbook, especially if the AMEX card holder can enter in their card
number into the iPhone?”
Although the impact of Passbook on
companies’ sales through mobile transaction is promising, whether it
will function efficiently as expected and thus changing people’s conventional ways of
using paper tickets still remains to be seen.
Sources:
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