American Airlines, Sephora excited by initial uptake of Apple's Passbook
The launch of Apple's Passbook with iOS 6 has the exceeded expectations of companies like American Airlines and Sephora, who say they have seen quicker-than-expected growth for the new platform.
Early adopters of Passbook spoke with Wired for a story published on Thursday, revealing that they have been impressed with how quickly end users have embraced it. The iPhone-exclusive feature found in iOS 6 allows users to collect store cards, coupons, tickets and other paper items digitally on their smartphone.
"We were amazed at the high uptake," said Phil Easter, director of mobile apps at American Airlines. "Apple has allowed an app developer like us to put features right in front of the user where before that space was off limits."
Easter's comments are in reference to the fact that Passbook, which integrates with App Store software, allows developers to push content to the iPhone's lock screen. In the case of American Airlines, boarding passes are displayed and can be scanned without the need to launch an application.
American Airlines has 1.5 million active Passbook users, and the airline says it serves about 20,000 passes to iPhone users every day.
American Airlines is joined by other carriers including Delta, United and Virgin in supporting Passbook. AppleInsider was first to report last month that British Airways is also planning to add support.
Cosmetics retailer Sephora has also seen benefits from the first few months of Passbook. The company saw 38,000 more downloads than usual of its application the day Passbook launched, with 10,000 "Beauty Insider" rewards cards added that same day.
Sephora, which leo uses Passbook for git cards, says that it now has 375,000 customers with their rewards cards linked to Passbook.
Julie Bornstein, senior vice president of Sephora, told Wired that her company particularly appreciates the "seamless" gift card functionality that Passbook supports.
"You can send a gift card to a friend, they accept it, hit a link to add their Passbook, and then they have their gift card right there," she said.
While airlines and companies like Sephora are using Passbook for more traditional means, in recent weeks some companies have adopted more unconventional ways of integrating support for the iOS 6 feature. For example, Re/Max real estate agents can share business cards with clients, while Discover has added support for cardholder rewards to Passbook.
Other early adopters of Passbook include Amtrak, Starbucks, Target, Live Nation, Fandango, Walgreens, and Major League Baseball. It's even been used by a ticketing company to offer passes to the Columbus Zoo.
Early adopters of Passbook spoke with Wired for a story published on Thursday, revealing that they have been impressed with how quickly end users have embraced it. The iPhone-exclusive feature found in iOS 6 allows users to collect store cards, coupons, tickets and other paper items digitally on their smartphone.
"We were amazed at the high uptake," said Phil Easter, director of mobile apps at American Airlines. "Apple has allowed an app developer like us to put features right in front of the user where before that space was off limits."
Easter's comments are in reference to the fact that Passbook, which integrates with App Store software, allows developers to push content to the iPhone's lock screen. In the case of American Airlines, boarding passes are displayed and can be scanned without the need to launch an application.
American Airlines has 1.5 million active Passbook users, and the airline says it serves about 20,000 passes to iPhone users every day.
American Airlines is joined by other carriers including Delta, United and Virgin in supporting Passbook. AppleInsider was first to report last month that British Airways is also planning to add support.
Cosmetics retailer Sephora has also seen benefits from the first few months of Passbook. The company saw 38,000 more downloads than usual of its application the day Passbook launched, with 10,000 "Beauty Insider" rewards cards added that same day.
Sephora, which leo uses Passbook for git cards, says that it now has 375,000 customers with their rewards cards linked to Passbook.
Julie Bornstein, senior vice president of Sephora, told Wired that her company particularly appreciates the "seamless" gift card functionality that Passbook supports.
"You can send a gift card to a friend, they accept it, hit a link to add their Passbook, and then they have their gift card right there," she said.
While airlines and companies like Sephora are using Passbook for more traditional means, in recent weeks some companies have adopted more unconventional ways of integrating support for the iOS 6 feature. For example, Re/Max real estate agents can share business cards with clients, while Discover has added support for cardholder rewards to Passbook.
Other early adopters of Passbook include Amtrak, Starbucks, Target, Live Nation, Fandango, Walgreens, and Major League Baseball. It's even been used by a ticketing company to offer passes to the Columbus Zoo.
Comments
Excited, huh. Initial, huh. Not excited enough to have done anything before launch, apparently.
Better late than never, I suppose.
Quote:
Originally Posted by patsu
Ha ha, I hope Apple update Passbook faster than their OS updates.
You're right, it frustrates me to no end when Apple doesn't release daily updates to their OS
I believe that this app will continue to see traction as more folks become familiar with it.
Are you serious?
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
Are you serious?
He's from Canada. We're almost never serious.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EMoeller
Air Canada also has added Passbook support, which I have used. I also have used Starbucks (works both domestically and international) as well as Fandango.
I believe that this app will continue to see traction as more folks become familiar with it.
I tend to agree that passbook really is the sleeper feature of iOS 6.0. Like the iPhone it will start slowly an then pounce. Companies will start to incorporate it and users will start to depend on it slowly. 12-18 months after it is out there, companies an users will realize it is used multiple times per week or even daily. I would love it if the local grocery store would get it and I could ditch the savings card thing. Same with my favorite (not Starbucks) coffee shop.
Quote:
Originally Posted by patsu
Ha ha, I hope Apple update Passbook faster than their OS updates.
Just what exactly in Passbook needs updating?
'Course, it's a lot easier to troll forums than to do something constructive -- such as writing and maintaining code.
I'm on the fence about Passbook. It was my favorite feature of iOS 6 - at first. Now I'm wondering how it fits into Apple's future plans. There are other ideas that I'm excited about in the mobile wallet arena.
For example, Discover Card and Paypal have partnered, and beginning in 2013 people will be willing to pay via the cloud, basically. Anywhere Discover is accepted, you key in your mobile # and pin code and you're done. No need to pull out a wallet or phone. And they mentioned being able to apply coupons, etc based on your phone's proximity to your location. Without pulling out your phone.
Really like the concept of Square Wallet, too.
In my dreams, Apple would offer something like this with iTunes. But payments in the cloud, no need to pull out my wallet, no NFC, nada. Safer than NFC, too. Guess we'll see
Quote:
Originally Posted by joelsalt
He's from Canada. We're almost never serious.
Except when they're rioting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
Sephora, which leo uses Passbook for git cards, says that it now has 375,000 customers with their rewards cards linked to Passbook.
I think this paragraph needs fixing.
Nice article on American Airlines... except they don't fly within Australia. :>(
I may be wrong, but doesn't PassBook require a userID and Password for each and every company one uses?
- 1 user id & password for starbucks
- another for Target,
- another for Sephora
- another for American Airlines
- another for Delta Airlines.
- ... etc
I just refuse to increase the 100's of UserId's and Passwords that I already have to include each and every retail store out there. It's out of hand.