ETW Staff– Mumbai
Global travel technology company Sabre is developing travel services that work across a number of wearable devices including smartwatches and Google Glass. TripCase, Sabre’s leading travel itinerary management app, is the first travel app of its kind to integrate with the highly-anticipated Samsung Gear S smartwatch.
The integration allows the traveller to click the notification on the watch to open the TripCase app to the relevant place on the mobile device, and will include a click-to-call feature next month. In addition, consumers using Android Wear devices and the Pebble and Pebble Steel watches can receive TripCase travel notifications directly to their wearable devices.
John Samuel, senior vice president, Sabre Traveller Solutions, said, “As the adoption of wearable technology grows, we want to ensure that the travel industry is ready to leverage this technology and serve travellers on the device they prefer. Wearable technology is fast becoming a prominent means of customer notification and communication. We’re looking to take it even further– from a one-way means of communication to an interactive, on-the-go service experience.”
TripCase users wearing these smart devices will receive real-time flight alerts, gate changes and other travel information conveniently on their wrists at a time when minute counts. This initial integration lays the ground work for more advanced TripCase services to be accessible on wearable technology in the future. TripCase is on pace to manage more than 25 million trips in 2014.
Sabre’s Google Glass prototype flight finder app was the company’s first foray into testing wearable devices and operates by finding flights based on a user’s simple voice command, ‘Ok Glass, find a flight from London Heathrow to Miami in June.”
“Wearable technologies– such as smartwatches and heads-up devices like Google Glass– will forever change the way consumers experience travel– from shopping via virtual reality to voice command recommendation. Creating these full service experiences require not just smart devices but also more precise location services and smart recommendation services,” added Samuel