WorldMate CEO, Nadav Gur, blogs about mobile, travel, internet, and where they all meet

My new Blog - The Vanguard

2010-10-18T15:55:00.001-07:00

So it's out. While my existing WorldMate blog is still there, on The Vanguard I will be free to share my wisdom and folly on various things - from travel through mobile to managing start-ups and capital. Check it out - http://www.nadavgur.com

This Blog Is Moving!

2009-07-07T02:01:00.000-07:00

I have moved my blog to the following address:

http://ceoblog.worldmate.com

See you there...

iPhone Users Are Predictably Irrational

2009-06-16T10:11:00.000-07:00

Over the last year or so, I've visited the topic of iPhone Apps and what they're good for several times. I must say I've angered some of my readers who saw my resistance to this great new wave as being purely bull-headed. Now that WorldMate for the iPhone is here, and our commitment to serving users on this platform is clear, we can come back to a discussion that's a little more level-headed.

My chief concern was how the AppStore marketing platform – which consists mainly of the best-seller lists, skews the platform towards cheap gizmos. Or basically – my argument is that:

The marketplace that Apple has created does not allow a company like WorldMate to charge the a price for its product that is in line with the product's value.

As I've spent some time writing a rather long piece - here are my main themes up front...

There are dozens of thousands of smartphone users who think WorldMate is worth at least $100 per year
A rational ROI analysis shows that WorldMate is worth at least $100 per year
If WorldMate is to make money on the iPhone platform – It can't do that on a few dollars per user.
Apple's App Store set-up triggered a consumer behavior called "Price Anchoring" which makes iPhone users believe that a price of $1-2 is adequate for apps, without any real rationale
This makes it very hard to build a scalable business on selling iPhone apps.

Now you know what I think - let me try to explain.

This discussion is by nature an economics discussion, so let's start by figuring out the "Right value" or "Right price" for the product.

WorldMate for other platforms (e.g. BlackBerry, Windows Mobile) retails for $99/yr. We've done quite a bit of price-testing before settling on this price, and we were considered one of the most successful app developers on these platforms. So you can state as a fact that:

There are dozens of thousands of smartphone users who think WorldMate is worth at least $100 per year

Otherwise they wouldn't have paid, right? But of course you could always argue that these people weren't thinking straight.

So - maybe a better way of justifying the price is by calculating the economical value. What WorldMate essentially does is save you time and get you out of trouble while traveling on business. We inform you of things in advance and provide you info quickly – so you won't miss your flight, get lost, etc., and we help you optimize – for instance find another flight when you need to change your schedule, or when your existing flight was delayed / canceled. So basically what we do is save you time. Now our average customer travels over 10 times a year and probably spends around $20,000 on business trips on a yearly basis. He costs his employer around $100 per hour in general, and double that while traveling. So – if we save our customer one hour a year – for instance by telling him he can leave for the airport an hour late cause the flight is delayed, or by giving him a map to his destination which saves him getting lost – the ROI is positive. If ever we manage to get him home a day early or enable an impromptu meeting while traveling (e.g. using our Connections social network) – that's easily a 5-x ROI.

Now one may argue that we need to look at the alternative cost – what replacement products are there. Let's assume that there are 2-3 free products or mobile websites out there that could replace WorldMate for free. If it'll take you one hour to find them, or, if these products are not as well integreated as WorldMate such that over the course of a year of usage it'll take you one more hour to get the info from them that WorldMate would have gotten for you automatically – then again, you paid your $100 to get these "Free" products – i.e. you paid more than you'd have paid for WorldMate anyway. So the bottom line is I think I can safely say:

A rational ROI analysis shows that WorldMate is worth at least $100 per year

Yet another way to examine this is how much does it actually cost us – what's our cost per user?
The platform we have cost quite a few millions of $ to develop over the last five years. The iPhone app itself cost us ~$150,000 to develop and we're still spending heavily. The content costs per user are meaningful (in the cents to dollars depending on activity). Hosting costs us six figures a year. So we certainly can't be profitable on $0.70 / user unless we serve millions.

If WorldMate is to make money on the iPhone platform – It can't do that on a few dollars per user.

Still – the iPhone customer market sees this differently. We launched a product at a $19.99 introductory price, and while we generally like the sales figures, still we see comments like "how could this be worth $20". Wait a minute - we've just shown how the product is worth 5 times this?

So what is it? Are iPhone users less rational? - not likely; Are they underpaid? Is their time not worth as much? Not really - recent surveys from Forrester and Nielsen survey show over 39% have over $100,000 HHI.

So why do iPhone users attribute a lower value or price to WorldMate – or for that matter, any app?

The answer is as simple as it is perplexing. There's a developing field in economics called Behavioral Economics. Simply put, what it studies is how people actually behave – as consumers, deal-makers etc.. You'd think that what's economics does in general – right? Well, not really… Traditional economics assumes people are rational beings. Empirical studies show they just aren't. And Behavioral Economics tries to understand this conundrum. There's a great book in the field called Predictably Irrational, written by Professor Dan Ariely of MIT, and one of the phenomena it describes is "Price Anchoring"

Price Anchoring in simple terms is the fact that the first price you see for something, is what you'll expect it's worth, regardless whether this price makes any rational sense. I especially like the story about the experiment they did where they told people to write the last two digits of their Social Security Number next to the name of a product – as a price. And then asked the same people how much they really think the product is worth. Lo and behold – people whose SSN ended in high numbers, ended up thinking the products are worth more than did the people whose SSN ends in low numbers. Incidentally, we're talking about highly rational MIT MBA students... Further studies show that it's then very hard to change that "anchor" – the initial impression of price, no matter how irrelevant, affects the long term perception of value, or "appropriate price".

How does this apply to the App Store?

When Apple gave early iPhone developers an incentive to price everything at $0.99, it actually made its customers perceive of iPhone Apps as worth $0.99, $1.99, maybe a few $ - tops. Regardless of the actual value created, the corresponding value of the content / service or any other rational aspect.

So for most iPhone users, the equation is simple:

"The adequate price for an iPhone App is $1, maybe $2…"

Oops. How do we make money in such a market? What's the long-term outlook like? Can this change over time? Does Apple care and will it attempt to change it?

Frankly, we'll see. We do have some great ideas about how to monetize, but we'll have to live and learn. I'd welcome thoughts and opinions.

Some interesting reads:

FierceWireless: If you're trying to make money, dump your iPhone strategy
TechCrunch: Report: iPhone Applications Are Getting Cheaper
Silicon Alley Insider: Apple's Relationship With iPhone Developers: 'Reluctant Tolerance'
And of course - Predictably Irrational

WorldMate for iPhone: The iPhone App is here!

2009-06-04T03:45:00.000-07:00

It's here. After all the debates, arguments, discussions and anxieties - WorldMate for iPhone is out there. 24 hours ago we launched both WorldMate - a free version, and WorldMate Gold - a Paid version. And these are just the first in a sting of releases planned for the next 3 months, which should make WorldMate for iPhone one of the richest and most valuable iPhone Apps out there.

Within 24 hours of launch we had over 1,000 new users. Both WorldMate and WorldMate Gold are already Top-20 iPhone travel apps. And this is just a beginning.

What does it do? Version 1 of WorldMate for iPhone provides our itinerary planner that is synchronized with the www.worldmate.com online itinerary planner, real-time flight status, flight schedules, click-thru to to maps & directions, a currency converter, as well as iPhone weather and world clocks. The Gold version automates the Flight Status function such that as soon as you enter the app you know if your flight's on time or not. The Free version is Ad-funded.

Over the coming months, we will strive to prove the thesis - there are enough serious iPhone users out there who are interested in more than gimmicks and games, to warrant the creation of this service on the iPhone.

Let's kick ass!

iPhone musings one last time - the moment of surrender

2009-04-30T04:55:00.000-07:00

First I was applauded, then advised, then blasted. The iPhone has changed the landscape, and I cannot ignore this any longer. Competitors like Tripit and FlightTrack are learning from us, duplicating our product, and trying to take the market away from us.
It's time we re-claimed our invention - the mobile itinerary application, and put it on the iPhone.

We've just published a post on the WorldMate blog explaining why WorldMate for iPhone and why now. Check it out.

The BlackBerry App World launch - Is this pent-up demand or what?

2009-04-02T18:45:00.000-07:00

It's been less than 36 hours since the App World was launched, and I have to say we're surprised at the rate of take-up. Our own app, WorldMate Live, is one of the apps featured there and hovers around #12 in the top downloads tables.

Extrapolating from our download numbers over these 36 hours, I'm expecting there were over 1M downloads from the App World in the first 24 hours. A million! Considering that the App Store was NOT pre-installed in any BlackBerry, but people actually had to download it to get at the apps in it, this is extremely impressive.

The App World itself still has some quirks - strange process of acquiring and displaying reviews, some usability issues here and there. But it's 100% functional and does the job. And the apps are top-notch. So very different from what we see on the iPhone App Store for instance.

I guess we're off to a good start then!

Going to TravelCom '09

2009-03-31T04:10:00.000-07:00

For the next 3 days, I'll be attending Travelcom '09 , one of the key travel trade-shows attended by all the who's who of the industry. Like every '09 show, the economy has a major effect on the vibe and the topics discussed. However at the same time, the travel industry is going through a quite a unique process of change, inflicted by a mixture of economic, regulatory and technology trends. I will be sitting on a panel about mobile and its influence on travel - "What you must know about Marketing Travel through Evolving Mobile Communications Systems" to which I've been invited by one of the few real luminaries in travel - Henry Herteveldt of Forrester. So if you're there - drop by, I guarantee it will be interesting.

Time permitting - I intend to write my next post about Web 2.0 and Travel. It seems like, unlike other areas, in Travel, web 2.0 actually means business.

Oh, one last thing - I owe you this picture, taken from seat 2F on yesterday's Continental flight EWR-ATL... I'm thinking of making it part of the WorldMate brand...

Of Power Luncheons

2009-03-25T13:57:00.002-07:00

What a day, after being lectured to by my VP of Products, and before being lectured to by my CFO, I managed to steal a few hours and participate in a luncheon arranged by Blonde 2.o and YL Ventures. Spent 3 hours at the same table with Sarah Lacy, Deborah Schultz and Ayelet Noff - I guess I must be doing something right, no? Oh, yes, Yossi Vardi was there too...

iPhone SDK 3.0: WorldMate Live on the Horizon!

2009-03-18T01:20:00.000-07:00

We were absolutely thrilled about Apple's announcements yesterday of what is coming in SDK 3.0. Push (at last), subscriptions, tiering, Google Maps integration. 90% of what we need to implement the full WorldMate Live vision on the iPhone. Here's Engadget's coverage of the announcement event.

We will be making some announcements about this in the near future.

Thanks to all our fans who've petitioned Apple for this!

Leaders and followers - How everyone is following Apple's lead (?!)

2009-03-15T02:48:00.000-07:00

In the last few months I've posted some rants about the shortcomings of the iPhone AppStore before, for instance under " . In doing so I've echoed the voices of many other industry players, including AppCubby, Mobile Tech Today and others. The general assumption in the market was that when introducing the AppStore Apple wanted to start simple, learn, and upgrade later. An example for such an upgrade are the "Top Paid" and "Top Free" apps tables.

One thing I certainly did not expect is for everyone else in the industry who's been distributing mobile apps for years, to look at Apple's success and draw the conclusion that they need to "go primitive" in order to be competitive. Take a look at handango.com for instance. They've been leading the mobile applications downloads market for years, and were the Mecca for early-adopter smartphone users. Over the early years, they've evolved their merchandising practices. For instance, they moved from a "Top 50 downloads" table counting downloads, to a "Best sellers" counting unit sales (just like iTunes), to a best sellers list measuring revenue generated by the different titles. And it worked for years.

Over the last few years, growth has stagnated. While I can't put my finger on it exactly, I can say from our ISV partner point-of-view that it seemed like things have slowed to a crawl there. Initiatives like subscription billing, free applications distribution with pay-per-download for the vendor and others took years to evolve for "IT reasons". And the iPhone has dealt them a blow - with their core audience switching in droves from Windows Mobile and Palm to iPhone, and then being forced to download only through the App Store.

How does a company respond to such market conditions? Well, in their case it looks like they've picked a very naive version of "if you can't beat them, join them". A couple of weeks ago they've switched their best-seller lists to be run by "most units sold" instead of "most revenue generated". So long $99 eOffice and WorldMate Live. Long live $0.99 iFart and iMaid.

Does this strategy make sense? Let's assume for one second that this strategy is indeed the right one for the App Store (I don't). Is it the right one for Handango? Are Apple and Hadango equivalent? let's see. Apple's targeting un-informed consumers who purchased the "coolest phone out there" and is trying to educate them to download apps. It has an existing billing relationship with them which means that it can easily power a good user experience for a $0.99 impulse purchase. The focus is on mass market "goods" and the strategy is focused on the lowest-common-denominator.

Handango's audience reached it after looking for a place to buy applications for their (non-iPhone) smartphones. They put their credit card numbers in to pay for their purchase. They have opted for BlackBerries and Windows Mobile devices. Are they the same psychographic as iPhone users? Will the lowest-common-denominator strategy work?

An even bigger concern are Apple's competitors. The AppStore's success is of course something they cannot ignore, and the rush to issue such stores of their own is justified. Advertising their phones as application platforms is something they should have started doing years ago (and believe me, I personally pitched such campaigns to them in the past). But are you going to be a leader or a follower?

One of the giants of this industry, a company who's been defining the mobile market for years, has recently announced its upcoming application store. This company has built various application and content distribution channels over the last 10 years, and has tested every model you can think of - from internet to on-device to retail-point-of-sale. They've done everything except one thing, which is to actually promote application use to consumers when they advertise their phones. Wait, isn't that a key part of Apple's marketing strategy?

Anyway, they're working with their developer community on the upcoming launch of their app store, and initially stated they will support a variety of business models - subscriptions as well as one-times, trial apps, freemium, etc. Then all of a sudden they have a change of heart. You see, now they are looking for a "consistent download experience", so why don't everyone go back to pay-before-you-download applications with a one-time fee and that's all?

What's going on here? Have Q4 reports been so bad that a market leader has lost any ability to think on its own and is blindly following Apple's example? What will they do in a few months when Apple will come out with subscriptions, trial apps etc.? Implement them then because then it is good practice in line with consumer expectations? Incidentally - is this also the strategy with your phones? To just clone Apple? Is this scalable? sustainable?

The latest news is on RIM's BlackBerry App World. The good news: an App Store for BlackBerry, with some more flexibility allowed to developers, and RIM heavily promoting application use. The bad news: RIM seems to be assuming BlackBerry users and iPhone users are the same demographic / psychographic. Therefore it taks the $0.99 - $9.99 pricing levels that are the norm on the iPhone App Store (but not imposed by Apple) and setting them as the established price level for the BlackBerry App World. Is your tool worth $50? Is your service going to generate / serve the business user $500 in value? Sorry, this is a Dollar Store.

Where is it all going? How much innovation is going to go down the drain because of this infatuation with $0.99 gimmicks? Frankly I don't know. I can only take solace in comments posted by our users on my previous posts about this, for instance:

"If people are willing to pay $.99 for crappy apps and odd sounds, imagine what they would pay for an app that is actually useful and works wonderfully like WorldMate Live."

Let me know what YOU think...

WorldMate Blog Launched

2009-03-10T00:41:00.001-07:00

Just dropping a note to say at last we've launched the company / product blog (as opposed to my blog). it's at blog.worldmatelive.com and already contains some interesting content!

WorldMate Live wins a GSMA Award

2009-02-16T09:58:00.000-08:00

The news is just in from Barcelona... WorldMate Live has been named "Most Innovative Mobile Application in a Vertical Market" by the GSM Association in the 2009 EMEA tournament.

With the GSMA being the leading global organization for wireless operators and device makers,this further stresses our recognition by the market leaders as the a leading light in mobile applications and the leader in mobile travel services. Kudos to the WorldMate team!

iPhone, iTunes, iFart - A case of the tail wagging the dog? Or is this a cat?

2009-01-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

First, we heard of the dozens of millions of applications downloads on the iPhone - as soon as the AppStore was available. Then, it was "100 Million Apps in 60 days". Then, comes what happens when you have such a big pool of active and dynamic primordial soup - the creation of life, and continued evolution. Culminating in the gem of creation itself, the most lucrative, top-ranked download for iPhone - iFart.

So is iFart a unique phenomenon, or is this the norm?

As of today, the top Free apps on the AppStore are 5 games, 2 gimmicks (Lightsabre and Flashlight), and the Facebook client. Top paid apps? 6 games, gimmicks (PocketGuitar, Koi Pond, Face Melter) and an online radio client.

Merriam-Webster defines an application as "a program (as a word processor or a spreadsheet) that performs one of the major tasks for which a computer is used".

Games, gimmicks, iFart, "... the major tasks for which a computer is used." Is this what Apple had in mind?

If I was an iPhone cynic, I could have said "QED" and be done with it. But I guess I'm not. So what is going on here? How does this reflect the iPhone market? What does this mean for iPhone application developers?

First, there is nothing new here. Back in the late 90's, Palm software websites like palmgear.com and palmcentral.com (later renamed Handango) were initially dominated by similar applications - gimmicks (remember Mirror? or our own FanMate?) and games - including some great ones like Bejeweled and Vexed!.

Those sites were managed very similarly to the current AppStore - Top 50 Downloads. What this meant was that something that a gimmick that appeals to a lot of people and is viral, is free, and happens to come to the market early on - will rise to the top and remain there. Later, because the Top 50 Downloads chart prefers applications with a long history - it gets extremely hard to stand out, no matter how good your new application is. The "Top 50 Monthly" was a slight improvement, because if your widget was very good, it could outshine those "older" widgets.

But is this a good business eco-system? It's a system that prefers small, easy-to-understand gimmicks, that are priced at 0 or something close to it, over anything that is more complex or pricey - but has lasting value. Guess why all the top-seller iPhone apps are $0.99? What makes a Best-Selling iPhone App? - according to TIME , a best-selling iPhone app - is a $0.99 gimmick.

Is this good for the iPhone? Initially, probably it is. But over the longer term? I don't think many Light-sabre or iFart users are very excited about those apps a week or a month after they've downloaded them. And this type of experience wears off pretty quick - unless you're a teenager. Remember Facebook apps, not so long ago - the next big thing?

And in a parallel universe - we have WorldMate users who've been with us since 2000...

This goes back to the dilemma facing serious application developers when faced with the iPhone. On the one hand, it's obviously an extremely popular smartphone platform, whose users are indeed focused on downloading stuff to. On the other hand - it seems like the vast majority of them are downloading entertainment / personalization stuff, not "real" applications - Personal Productivity, Utilities, Business Apps etc. Furthermore the AppStore has a built-in preference for tiny little snippets of value (entertainment or otherwise) that will be consumed and forgotten, over more complex products that may cost more and appeal to less people, but will provide significant value over a long time. The App Store is a one-size-fit-all - comparing downloads, not volume of use, and units, not revenue.

So do we want to be a gourmet restaurant in a fast-food court? How do we market in such a marketplace?

I'd love to hear your suggestions!

- Nadav

Late addition:

Many interesting articles sprouting up. One of them - Financial Realities of the App Store

Location Based Hotel Booking

2008-12-16T13:50:00.000-08:00

Well, the news is out, we now have location-based hotel booking in WorldMate Live both on mobile and on the web. The great thing about it is that it's so easy to explain. I was at a meeting with a VC a few weeks ago, and we were talking about online booking, and the guy says - "you know, I never have to do it, I just tell my secretary - find me a 4-star near the meeting, and it's done".

So in essence - that's what we launched. "Find me a 4-star near my meeting.". The meetings are there, the hotels are there, they're all laid out on a map, and hey presto! You got what you need. Try it. I'd love to hear what you think.

CEO Blogging and the merits of the common flu

2008-12-07T23:49:00.000-08:00

Yes, you got it. I am home with the flu. So suddenly the blog gets some attention. And I expect that if you track other CEO's blogs, and see sudden spikes in creativity, it means something similar. That is, of course, assuming they write it themselves, which is this case.

WorldMate Live on the BlackBerry Storm and the Storm vs. iPhone debacle

2008-12-07T23:20:00.000-08:00

Last week, we released a version of WorldMate Live that supports the latest BlackBerry Storm. This is probably one of the first "real" Storm apps, i.e. one that works with the new touch-based user interface and was customized especially for the Storm, rather than an existing BlackBerry app that runs in "compatibility mode".

Of course, everyone asks me what I think of the Storm. It looks like the pre-release campaign was very effective. I was presenting at a conference the other week, and while I was backstage with my BlackBerry Bold in hand, one of the secretaries asked me "Is that the new BlackBerry Storm?", I told her it wasn't, and the Audio equipment guy tells her "it can't be, they're only releasing it on the 21st...". So if average Joe audio guy can recite your launch date, it probably means you got some people excited. The question is - how will they react to the actual product?

Well, a couple of weeks later we have some Storm lovers and many Storm bashers... Just google "BlackBerry Storm vs. iPhone"... Everyone is there to tell you that product A rather than B is the right one. Or vice versa. Furthermore, many reviewers are citing the Storm's software issues as its drawbacks.

This is naive. First, the notion that there's a "one size fit all" in a market with over 2 billion customers is just silly. Second, it is clear that in its race to release a product before Christmas, RIM has cut some corners. This happens very often (including to Apple), and is later fixed with over-the-air software upgrades, for instance. Why do you think the stock was depleted in 48 hours? Did RIM really not expect for the device to succeed, after the concerted marketing efforts?

In my mind, RIM had a situation on its hands. On the one hand - the shopping season is beckoning. On the other, the product is not yet 100% ready, and the main competitor's product is probably on the top of many people's Christmas lists. The Storm competes with the iPhone more than it does with the Bold - so whatever can be done to delay decisions, shift demand to RIM's product - is good for RIM. And that's what they did - early pre-announcement and consumer-focused campaign, got many people in the Storm camp. But wait - there's a risk. Cause if the product is a flop just because the software wasn't ready (and could have been - had you waited 6 weeks or so) - the backlash could be devastating, harm the product in the long term.

Well, did they make the right judgement call? Too soon to tell. Personally I believe the Storm software will see both glitches removed and user interfaces improved over the next 3 months. When they are, it will be a kick-ass device. Not as good for an e-mail intensive user as the BlackBerry Bold, but better than the current iPhone, for sure.

And WorldMate Live on the Storm? Just like the Storm - will get even better in a month...

WorldMate Raises a Round of funding from the BlackBerry Partners Fund and Motorola Ventures

2008-11-06T03:15:00.001-08:00

Last week, we announced our recent round of funding, led by the BlackBerry Partners Fund. Raising money in this day and age is of course a challenge, and we're glad (and relieved) that we have completed this round. But it was as important to us to raise it from the right people. In fact a few months ago we rejected a bird in the hand (from a notable VC) for this bird on the tree, at significant risk. The reason we did this was simple. The BlackBerry Partners Fund is a fund with a real vision for the mobile internet, led by people who totally "get it". That to us has significant value. On top of that, RIM (RIMM) is a limited partner in the fund and has an open dialog with them. If you follow this blog you probably know what we think of the BlackBerry platform and how our vision is intertwined with theirs. So getting up-close-and-personal with them is something we value highly.

There are a few more companies like that in the mobile arena - Nokia, with whom we have a good relationship, Samsung, who seem to be taking their #2 position in the mobile device market seriously and are now building an eco-system, not just devices, and of course Apple. We are hoping to deepen the relationship with them too in the near future.

On winning the GSMA Award for Innovation

2008-10-13T02:03:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we were nominated as a Semi Finalist for the GSMA Innovation Awards 2009. WorldMate Live was named the most innovative mobile application in a vertical market.

This is of course a great honor. But further then that, it may be an indicator about how the mobile industry and specifically operators are seeing the future. You see - the GSMA is really an association centered around the needs and interests of mobile operators, and these awards were geared towards what is interesting to them. Taking an interest in WorldMate Live is really wanting to get involved in travel, becoming a part of the travel distribution value chain - potentially going beyond being a data-pipe into and taking a part in commercial processes done via mobile devices - m-commerce.

m-commerce has been over-generalized and over-hyped in the past. Most self proclaimed m-commerce companies are really enablers to payment, tracking and so on. That's like saying e-commerce is about clearing credit cards on the Internet. Or like saying Amazon's business is to take money from people. Yes, this is an important enabler and important aspect of it... but it totally misses the point. Building the m-commerce business is about making products that are relevant to consume or purchase while on-the-move, available to purchase in a compelling manner through mobile devices. This is no trivial feat.

Travel is going to be at least as dominant a vertical in m-commerce as it is in e-commerce. Simply because travel is mobility and you consume travel products on the move. This is what WorldMate Live is ultimately about, and we're glad to see the mobile industry is taking an interest.

iPhone Musings - Episode II

2008-10-09T15:17:00.000-07:00

It was over a year ago when I commented on the shortcomings of the iPhone as a business tool on this blog. Since then, that post got the most reader comments I ever got here... Lately, we're inundated daily with user requests for WorldMate Live on their iPhone. And certainly - the iPhone SDK and the iPhone 3G are not to be ignored.

However, there are significant issues still. The iPhone SDK does not allow an application to update information in the background - e.g. the Auto-update functionality of WorldMate / WorldMate Live. It does not include a robust push mechanism yet, or allow us to build our own - enabling the pushed flight alerts, trip reminders and welcome messages which put the "Live" in WorldMate Live. And the iTunes App Store model is not a great match for our distribution philosophy.

So will iPhone users get WorldMate Live? Well, we'll do whatever we can. At the same time - if you want it on your iPhone, we should jointly petition Apple to enable us to do those things. I am thinking of putting up an online petition for Apple to open these APIs for us. If you're a supporter - comment here. I promise that if we get 10 people commenting, we'll post an online petition.

The cool new WorldMate Live !

2008-10-06T04:45:00.000-07:00

We were walking around for the last few months with a strange feeling. On the one hand, we had what we believed is a kick-ass service for travelers, one of the richest, most advanced mobile services. On the other hand, it didn't feel right. Something was missing.

It was at a meeting with one heck of a smart guy, David Steinberg of CAIVIS that it dawned on us. David asked how we reached our users, and when we told him most of them encounter our service directly on their smartphones - he said "Guys, you need to wow them. You gotta make it the coolest thing they've seen on those phones!". That took me back a few years...

So - with the help of our great programmers and designers - we are now proud to present the all-new WorldMate Live. We improved the usability and UI of everything - website, web app, BlackBerry app, Windows Mobile app - everything. And we launched our new branding. So kudos to the WorldMate team, and mates - you just have to check this out at www.wmlive.com !

The Intelligent Travel Agent - Now In Your Holster

2008-08-14T06:19:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week we have soft-launched our latest achievement and great hope for the future – our first m-commerce service. WorldMate Live now enables users to book hotel stays directly on their phones.

So what's the big deal you may ask? There are a zillion websites with hotel bookings, no?

But do you want to surf those websites on your mobile?

If you're traveling tomorrow and need a last second solution – wouldn't you rather have someone who tells you "well, you forgot to book, but no worries – I have 3 hotels just around the corner from where your meetings are tomorrow. They're also all 4-stars under $200 a night, best of all - one of them is a Hilton, so you're getting points on your HHonors card."

Well – that's exactly the WorldMate Live way of doing it. Hotel search that is based on the location of your meetings, your brand and budget preferences, and that reminds you to book in case you're embarking on a trip and haven't done so already – and then lets you complete the booking right on your smartphone with a few clicks.

And once you book – all the information flows into your WorldMate Live itinerary so WorldMate can guide you straight there.

Our version 1.0 implementation is integrated with our BlackBerry version of WorldMate Live and includes access to all Hotels.com inventory and prices. Pretty soon we will add platforms and inventory, as well as continue improving the user experience (adding AGPS and much more).

Safe Travels!

100,000 down, 40 Million to go!

2008-02-06T03:33:00.000-08:00

Well, now it's official. WorldMate Live crossed the 100,000 registered user line (in fact, since we authored the newsletter about it, we've already crossed 110,000...). Our first system-wide upgrade is out, including MAJOR improvements to the BlackBerry client, the web application and the Outlook Add-in. Our first newsletter published yesterday tells all about it - click here to read it.
Later this week we'll be releasing some highly interesting information about this audience. And some more announces are slated for Mobile World Congress! (3GSM) Stay tuned!

Something for the Israelis

2008-01-31T01:50:00.000-08:00

Oh my, it's been so long, I feel I really have to make amends somehow. So here's one way to do it, and thanks to Eyran Blumberg!

A guy is sitting in the bar in departures at a busy airport. A beautiful
woman walks in and sits down at the table next to him.

He decides because she's that pretty, she's probably an off-duty flight
attendant. So he decides to have a go at picking her up by identifying
the airline she flies for, thereby impressing her greatly.

He leans across to her and says the Delta Airlines motto 'We love to fly
and it shows'.

The woman looks at him blankly. He sits back and thinks up another line.
He leans forward again and delivers the Air France motto 'Winning the
hearts of the world'.

Again she just stares at him with a slightly puzzled look on her face.
Undeterred, he tries again, this time saying the Malaysian Airlines motto
'Going beyond expectations'.

The woman looks at him and says 'What the fuck do you want?'

'Ah!' he says, sitting back with a smile on his face. 'EL-AL'.

WorldMate Live hits 10,000 user line!

2007-10-14T01:35:00.000-07:00

Well, with just 2 weeks on the air, we already have 10,000 people signed up! That's quite a kick-off!

And here's our first blogger review: Your Personal Travel Assistant

WorldMate Live goes... LIVE!

2007-09-26T14:32:00.000-07:00

Well, we're LIVE. I was expecting to write a long piece, but the feedback from the announcement is virtually keeping me up at night answering people, so that will have to wait.

In the mean time, here's a link to the announcement: http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070925005476&newsLang=en

The system is now open and anyone can join for free - so sign up at http://www.wmlive.com now!

WorldMate at NBTA 2007

2007-08-08T02:10:00.001-07:00

Last week we came back from the 2007 National Business Travel Association show in Boston, where WorldMate Live was demonstrated to a couple hundred corporations, travel agents and other players in the travel space. WorldMate Live was greeted with an "A-ha" by most - it seems like the need and the solution are so clear and evident, some people are surprised this wasn't invented sooner. We also gained some in-depth knowledge of the related pains of travel managers - the people who need to re-accommodate all those travelers who missed their connections, don't know how to get to their hotel etc. Basic elements of WorldMate Live that we considered trivial are for them big time-savers. For us, that's great validation to what we're doing.

The National Business Travel Association is by nature focused more on travel developments than technology developments. It's a show where you see more versions of business class seats and models of limousines than software systems. It also seems like this is exactly what many attendees preferred and responded to. How this serves the companies that send them there I am not sure I understand. The equivalent in the technology space is sending your people to attend a trade show and getting a report that they saw great new keyboards, mice and USB adapters.

Travel is an industry that was fundamentally impacted by technology in the last decade. Internet technology facilitated direct distribution (a critical element of the low-fare airline model), online travel booking by travelers themselves (which reduces costs on the one hands - and compliance with corporate policies on the other) and informed travelers (making better operational decisions - good for the company, not necessarily for the agent). This totally changed the business of travel distribution and specifically corporate travel management. A new trend in the industry is the "procurementalization" of travel management, founded on the simple precept - "why should purchasing flight tickets be fundamentally different from purchasing office supplies, shipping services or catering services?". These trends are essentially driven by technology introduced by companies like Rearden Commerce and GetThere. WorldMate Live, through reducing the dependence on manual assistance (over the phone) to travelers is another example of cost-reduction and efficiency-improvement enabled by technology.

My point is that the modern day travel manager should seriously "get" technology, and be interested in it. Otherwise, as a corporation you will probably get the most comfy seats, but miss the fact that you can shave a significant percentage of your T&E costs - either by reducing direct costs, or by getting more out of each trip so that less trips are needed and more time can be spent actually working. Some of the travel managers we met at NBTA were exactly like that - clever, on-the-spot, business-oriented. These are the people who will make a difference for their companies.

And as for the people who attended in order to compare the business-class dinners at the top airlines? Well, I hope they work for the energy sector. Or government, for that matter. Someone else's government that is.

iPhone musings

2007-08-04T23:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess I'm very late. One thing about the iPhone and tech bloggers is it seems like if you haven't said or written about it, you just aren't one.

As someone who's seen a few ground-breaking product launches in this industry, I must say I'm not that impressed. Yes, it's a great product - for some. But cellphones are a one billion device per year industry. Theoretically, you can have five hundred handset models released into the market a year with the majority of them being successful and profitable. So what separates the iPhone from this pack? A kick-ass screen - yes. But that's not "Apple proprietary technology". Good industrial design - cool. Hype, well... The fact that Apple can stretch its brand successfully to a line of handsets is frankly less surprising than the fact Dolce & Gabbana can. Does that revolutionize the cellphone industry? Hardly.

What the iPhone definitely isn't is a good business tool. These rely mainly on messaging capabilities - secure push e-mail with strong text input capabilities. The iPhone's touch screen, great for zooming in on maps (assuming they're Google's) and viewing YouTube clips, is not text-entry friendly. The system also lacks of a robust push email solution, and the fact it's a closed platform lets no 3rd party contribute one, or any other horizontal application that cannot be delivered over a browser.

So - RIM has nothing to worry about. Neither do people like HTC, unless they see themselves as players in the gizmo space rather than business device makers. The iPhone's dent in the smartphone market (is it a smartphone? isn't a smartphone defined as a handset with an open OS?) will be limited to people who are actually media device consumers, not smartphone consumers. Yes, it's a big segment, and Nokia / Sony Ericsson / Motorola should take heed. But for now the iPhone will go no further than that sector.

.... Late addition - Dec. 14th 2008 ....

I am getting a lot of responses for this post still... I expect you may also want to read this subsequent post before commenting...

2007-06-28T08:15:00.000-07:00

"He who would travel happily must travel light"
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

WorldMate Live - The Birth

2007-06-28T05:46:00.000-07:00

Well...

It's been almost 3 years since the "WorldMate Itinerary" vision started forming. Three years of what sometimes felt like a totally Sisyphean struggle - to get funding, co-operation, people, access to information, and much of the time - to stay afloat. 2006 has seen us transforming - from a bootstrap to a start-up, and the last 6 months look like one long sprint to get where we're going. Well - we're just starting, but it looks like we've just cleared the first hurdle - with the release of WorldMate Live's private beta.

This blog will record the story from now on - the story of a new, and if may say so myself highly innovative, product. We will try to tell the story of what was done, say what we can about what would be done in the future, and learn from you, the readers, what should be done.

What is WorldMate Live? Well, in a nut-shell, WorldMate Live is our attempt to take all the gizmo technologies we're carrying in our pockets and really put it to use for the aid of travelers. If you've ever done any serious business travel, you don't need to be told what a stressful and tiring chore this is. As if going through a string of meetings with complete strangers whom you have to convince to take a gamble on you within 90 minutes is not a challenge on its own, an obstacle course consisting of late aircraft, closed airports, lost taxi drivers, mile-long check-in queues, rude attendants and noisy hotels was devised to make sure the busy executive is never bored. Well , we believe that knowledge is power, and with the right information delivered at the right time and linked to the right actions, we are able to empower the business traveler - saving him time, money, effort, but, most importantly - stress. The stress of not knowing where you are, and how to get to where you want to be.

How many times have you asked yourself:

What is my gate number? Which terminal is that at?
Will I make it to my connecting flight? If I'm stuck, is there another flight later?
Can I walk from the station to the hotel, or should I take a taxi?
Where is the hotel, anyway?And do I have a valid reservation? Where's that confirmation number?

Or the proverbial - where the blazes can a bloke get a bite to eat round here?

If you've been there, done that and got the scars, we want to give you a better way to travel. One where you know what's going on around you, even if you didn't have time to do your homework. One where you're not limited by the time / patience / intelligence of your travel agent, nor have to find 10 minutes and a hotspot to log on and do it yourself. When everyone else is forming a queue, you already got what you need. When everyone is asking questions and exchanging rumors, you already know. Our way, you breeze through travel - because you have an automated aid that helps you, every step of the way. That's what WorldMate Live is really about.

So - WorldMate Live is this service, where your mobile device knows where you're going, what flight you're taking to get there, where you pick up your rental car and where you park it at night when you go to bed. It automatically gets this information from your calendar, from e-mails you get from your travel supplier, and from dozens of sources on the Internet. It then wakes up to remind you of your flight, tell you where you've landed and how to get to your car / hotel / meeting, and when to catch that flight home, at last. And, if we can help it, it does so with class. Cause there's no act like a class act...

Will this blog usually be this fluffy? I guarantee it won't. Mostly we'll be telling you highly technical things, like when the next release is expected and what will version 6.12.001 contain. But we hope that WorldMate Live will become a good part of your life - such that from time to time, if you want to know where we're taking it, and why, or tell us we're great, or good, or wrong - you'll come back here.

June 28 2007 marks the release of WorldMate Live's private beta. For now, we're keeping it to ourselves and a few of our close friends. Very soon, it will be yours. After all, it's not about navel-gazing, it's about giving people what they want and need. We're glad to be kicking this off at last. Lets see where it gets us.