The iPad is the Greatest Thing in Inflight Entertainment (Or is It?)
When the iPad first came out, there was a lot of discussion about whether it would become the new "it" thing for inflight entertainment. Anytime Apple (AAPL) puts out a product, that kind of buzz seems to bubble up, but the reality is that while the iPad may have opened a door, there are going to be far better options out there.
Instead of focusing on the long term question of whether airlines will need to even provide entertainment in twenty years, let's focus on the short to mid-term. While some people have iPads and computers, there are still a lot of people who have nothing, and airline-provided inflight entertainment is not going away... yet.
With that in mind, what is the right kind of entertainment to provide? Some airlines have gone with very robust in-seat systems which, while heavy and costly to install and repair, are the most stable, and provide the greatest options for passengers. Others have gone with handheld devices.
You'll find handheld devices in business class on American, on longer flights on Alaska (ALK) and Hawaiian, and at many other airlines around the world. Handhelds are simple, because they don't need to be integrated into the seat. But they also need to be charged and updated in a central place. Oh yeah, and then there's the theft issue.
But even the handheld world is divided. Some have gone the way of designing their own players, like digEcor, because they think that's the best way to serve the airborne market. Others have used off-the-shelf systems. And now the iPad is the big daddy of all the off-the-shelf systems.
I spoke with Bluebox about this at the Airline Passenger Experience Association show last week. Bluebox has found its place using off-the-shelf devices, and it is the one providing iPads to Jetstar out of Australia for the first airline-provided iPad entertainment system.
Now, I'm not an Apple fanboy. I use a Blackberry, I have a netbook, and I haven't even owned an iPod in five years. So I had to figure out why the iPad was so great. If you're providing inflight entertainment content on the airplane, does it really matter what box is providing it?
For Bluebox, it seems to have come down to one thing. It's a cool-guy branding move. Jetstar wants to be cool and putting out the latest, greatest Apple product makes the airline look it. Let's see if it still looks cool after Apple has put out a few more versions and the Jetstar ones become obsolete. But that's the biggest selling point.
Now there are other strong points. The iPad has a nice, big picture, and it has long battery life. But even the 10 hour battery life isn't enough for Jetstar. Each iPad will be handed out on a stand with an extended battery that doubles the life. Jetstar wanted to be able to fly roundtrip from Sydney to Honolulu before having to recharge.
But long battery life and great picture quality are also being rolled out on a million iPad competitors. And those competitors will likely be easier to program and won't be as expensive as Apple products notoriously are.
So Apple may have opened the door to a better handheld entertainment system, but I fully expect to see better options come out sooner rather than later. Still, it's hard to be as cool as Apple, so for some airlines, that might be the right choice.
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Photo via Brett Snyder