Qantas airline to provide passengers Apple iPads for in-flight entertainment
Australian air carrier Qantas has announced that it will be handing out Apple's iPad to passengers on flights, giving them access to over 200 hours of movies, music, and television.
Hindustan Times on Tuesday carried a report that the Australian carrier would be adding iPads to the in-flight amenities for all classes flying between Sydney and Honolulu on 767 aircraft. The devices will integrate with Q Streaming, the company's in-flight entertainment system, allowing them to tap into the plane's onboard Wi-Fi.
Passengers will initially have access to movies, music, and television shows. Subsequent updates will see interactive games, digital newspapers, magazines, and travel and business apps added to the service.
The iPads come as Qantas is working to upgrade the experience on its flights. Its 767 aircraft have been refurbished, with new carpeting, lighting, curtains, and cabin dividers, as well as leather seat covers in business class.
Qantas began testing the iPad as an in-flight entertainment option in 2011 on a single 767. Apple's iPad and iPhone are increasingly popular as in-flight entertainment options, with recent studies indicating that iOS devices account for 84 percent of in-flight web traffic in the United States.
Hindustan Times on Tuesday carried a report that the Australian carrier would be adding iPads to the in-flight amenities for all classes flying between Sydney and Honolulu on 767 aircraft. The devices will integrate with Q Streaming, the company's in-flight entertainment system, allowing them to tap into the plane's onboard Wi-Fi.
Passengers will initially have access to movies, music, and television shows. Subsequent updates will see interactive games, digital newspapers, magazines, and travel and business apps added to the service.
The iPads come as Qantas is working to upgrade the experience on its flights. Its 767 aircraft have been refurbished, with new carpeting, lighting, curtains, and cabin dividers, as well as leather seat covers in business class.
Qantas began testing the iPad as an in-flight entertainment option in 2011 on a single 767. Apple's iPad and iPhone are increasingly popular as in-flight entertainment options, with recent studies indicating that iOS devices account for 84 percent of in-flight web traffic in the United States.
Comments
Simply substituting iPads will probably be cheaper for them and better for the customer. I don't know why any airline would use a custom system over simply Ethernet'ed iPads, given a decent central management app.
2) Considering how much those in-seat systems cost, cost to repair if one breaks, and the poor quality those displays are I can see a lot of advantage to airlines eventually opting not to include any or to simply make an in-seat system for a powered-and easily replaceable iPad (or other tablet) device.
Would have been better if Qantas's value brand was called Tightas.
PS: I've always wondered if airlines have entertainment rules regarding movies that involve plane crashes (seems very likely) and music by artists that have died in a plane crash (seems possible with at least some airlines).
Yes, cause that's what I want, in addition to being stuck in a steel tube with hundreds of other sniffling, snotty nosed passengers I now get to play with a touchscreen that who knows how many flu riddled people have used before me.
Now excuse me while I store some of my urine in a jar.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
1) Sydney to Honolulu is about a 10 hour flight which means that few other tablets would be viable candidates.
Do they not also provide a power cable?
Or do they have to swap the entire aircraft's tablet inventory for full charged units after every long flight?
Seems like the first choice makes more sense.
Where are the Trolls caliming that Electronic Devices have a 1/1000000000000000th chance of causing minuscule Interference with the Navigation System which in turn will cause nothing.
I am not sure how long we will keep the ban on Electronic Devices on flights. Seems we will ban walking on roads because a wayward bus may hit us.
[deleted]
Quote:
Originally Posted by pondosinatra
Yes, cause that's what I want, in addition to being stuck in a steel tube with hundreds of other sniffling, snotty nosed passengers I now get to play with a touchscreen that who knows how many flu riddled people have used before me.
Are disinfectant wipes not available where you live?
Quote:
Originally Posted by KDarling
Do they not also provide a power cable?
Or do they have to swap the entire aircraft's tablet inventory for full charged units after every long flight?
Seems like the first choice makes more sense.
Many planes are now using chairs with a charging port in the arm rest. So a cable would be easy to do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PScooter63
Are disinfectant wipes not available where you live?
A number of studies how shown they as well as hand sanitizers aren't overly effective at killing the flu virus.
According to Rainman Qantas is the safest airline to fly, so why not poke fun at the amateurs?
Stop being a baby and build up your immune system.
Rental or Free? How much they would charge you if you break one? And if you can't pay for it, they make you stay on board till someone can pay for it?
The way it works is quite simple. They have a little horizontal strap sewn across the back of the seat in front of you. The iPad is struck in the seat pocket and comes in a case that has a lit that folds back. Once you fold back the lid you can easily stick it into the strap. Of course there is nothing stopping you from using your own iPad as well.
I have no idea how they charge them. The one in my pocket was 80% charged. As gar the entertainment options are concerned it's standard Qantas stuff... ie what ever they show on other aircraft.
The implementation in my opinion is rubbish though. Rather than designing a native App they opted for a web based approach. When you turn on the iPad or reboot it it automatically launches Safari. The iPad seems to be connecting to an onboard Wifi network on which Safari connects to a web site. The design of the site is rather poor and the site is also not very responsive. Any video is then streamed to the iPad within the web browser. You can full screen it but the quality of the video is not that great. Skipping around in a program is painful as it takes forever to buffer and scrubbing is very imprecise.
Overall this is really a sub-par experience and I ended up using my own iPad. I really hope for Qantas that this was a just a trial system and that the final solution will be a native app with content hopefully stored on the device. If not I would say this was a total fail.
No idea who the company is that developed the solution but considering how much money they must have paid for it you'd think they would have gotten a better solution.
In a nutshell I would say the iPad solution I used on that flight is even worse than the seat back inflight entertainment system Qantas uses on their long range jets.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stehsegler
The implementation in my opinion is rubbish though. Rather than designing a native App they opted for a web based approach. When you turn on the iPad or reboot it it automatically launches Safari. The iPad seems to be connecting to an onboard Wifi network on which Safari connects to a web site. The design of the site is rather poor and the site is also not very responsive. Any video is then streamed to the iPad within the web browser. You can full screen it but the quality of the video is not that great. Skipping around in a program is painful as it takes forever to buffer and scrubbing is very imprecise.
Are you kidding me, who are their tech people? It should be built in to the back of the seat in front, with power and Ethernet provided through the Lightning (or 30-pin) connector, with a custom app that is the only thing that can run.