With the popularity of mobile travel applications surging in popularity, Research In Motion is rolling out its much-anticipated BlackBerry Travel app.
Unveiled this week in Barcelona, Spain at the Mobile World Congress, the BlackBerry Travel app provides BlackBerry smartphone users with a so-called “all-in-one integrated and contextual experience” as they plan, book and manage their travels and itineraries from their BlackBerry device.
All the standard travel-related features are there: hotel booking, currency converters, weather forecasts, local searches, etc. While certainly nothing groundbreaking in the world of mobile applications, the latest offering from RIM does, however, represent an impressive effort to capitalize on the hot travel app market for BlackBerry users.
One of the most talked-about aspects of the new app is how “social” it truly is. The app provides BlackBerry smartphone users with the ability to share their travel information with colleagues, friends and family over email or through LinkedIn, directly from inside the BlackBerry Travel app. The LinkedIn integration even enables users to search for people in their network who will be in the same city, send messages to contacts and update their status.
“The BlackBerry Travel app is set to be the next must-have tool for travelers, offering convenient push notifications and seamless integration of travel itineraries, profiles, and flight status updates into the familiar BlackBerry Calendar,” said Jim Tobin, Senior VP of Software and Services at RIM.
“We also think the BlackBerry Travel app represents a great opportunity for travel industry leaders to work with RIM to deliver enhanced services and better travel experiences for their customers, and new revenue opportunities for travel providers,” Tobin added.
