Technological property is very important in today's day and age, and ensuring that your company's ideas aren't stolen by others is imperative. Patents have become a necessity, and Apple has acquired an iTravel patent late last month. The iTravel patent will deal with NFC enabled devices and handling e-ticketing transactions. It seems as if future iPhones could be equipped with NFC, especially since Passbook is set to be one of the greatest features of iOS6 this fall.
So what is iTravel? Apple hasn't said much about it yet, but here's what I've gathered. Using the iTravel component, individuals can make travel bookings through the app, and their devices would digitally store all the important travel documents. iTravel will become an app that takes care of everything someone would need when travelling, like making reservations, checking in, booking flights, and managing checked in luggage. Eventually, iTravel could not only serve domestic goals, but also things at the traveller's destination, like hotel bookings and car and bus rentals.
Apple isn't forcing those to book all their travel plans through iTravel. However, the data from the issuing agency can be stored and accessed through a different website, with the relevant confirmation number, e-mail, or NFC device which users can then open up and store in iTravel. Similar to how Passbook works, users wouldn't need to purchase things through iTravel, but could use it as a storage hub.
There's still a lot on the table that I haven't covered but it seems as if iTravel could work dynamically with Passbook. If in fact Apple does integrate NFC into its devices, iPhones could someday not only serve as a digital wallet through Passbook but also a mobile ticket system.
No comments:
Post a Comment