| Home > Of things Mac > Inflight iTunes Music Store could replace airline-chosen entertainments - thoughts on the way to a Fear of Flying Congress in Montreal |
| Inflight iTunes Music Store could replace airline-chosen entertainments - thoughts on the way to a Fear of Flying Congress in Montreal | | Date Created: 02 Jun, 2007, 05:34 PM |
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I flew into LAX this morning, to spend a day or two with friends before heading to Montreal for a conference on Fear of Flying.
I'm presenting there on my experiences using Virtual Reality as a treatment modality, as well as biofeedback and heart rate variability, all of which use Windows apps. On a PC running Windows Xp.
I'll be using Keynote to hopefully offer a killer presentation, and it'll probably be on the only Mac at the conference ... well yes for sure it will be on my Powerbook, but more the Powerbook is likely to be the only one of its kind on show. Aviation is a particularly conservative commercial entity, and the Mac is just too "out there".
So on my flight over to LAX, some 14 hours duration, I sat next to a bright young Web intranet designer, adoring of her 80GB Video iPod, and we struck up a conversation while watching United Airlines' movie fare, all of which featured the theme of coming to terms with chasing your vision while experiencing unexpected loss and grief.
I discussed my planned Keynote, and discussed VR and presentation skills in general, and then we got onto the history of the iPod. Naturally, we discussed why other MP3 players had failed, and agreed that iTunes was central to its success, as was the development of iTunes into an online store while remaining for a brief period a Mac-only app. I was in "old man of history" mode given this young woman was a senior in high school when the iPod was first introduced.
As it so happened I was in the midst of listening to an audiobook of Steven Levy's "A Perfect Thing" which I'd purchased from iTunes. Like the hard cover printed book, its story of the iPod plays out of sequence, emulating the iPod/iTunes shuffle function to which Levy devotes a chapter.
Now back in March 2005 on a similar flight into LAX I recorded an inflight fear of flying podcast which ended up on iTunes, which I mentioned to my young travelling companion.
She immediately asked why airlines couldn't offer a channel in their audio/visual entertainment system for such recordings to help anxious flyers at 39,000 feet.
It's quite likely that this possibility will be discussed at the Congress in Montreal, but her question prompted me to reply that there has been discussion of new aircraft variants from Boeing (B787) and Airbus (A380/350) now in final assembly and test flight status respectively, supplying passengers with jacks to charge their iPods in flight. (Zune owners would lose their unique "squirt" ability because on my flight at least no wireless comms. were permitted).
So if that means connecting a 30pin charging cable to the iPod to supply power, why limit it to supply only power. Why not use forthcoming inflight satellite and cellphone capacities to allow internet connection too.
Now, Connexions by Boeing was an early failed $320M attempt to allow passengers to have inflight internet access, purchased for a 24 hour period and multiple flights. It was deemed financially unviable, when too little take-up occurred. Too soon for its time, perhaps.
But what if on the seatback screen you could access the iTunes music store and buy and view downloadable material, which also gets to be stored on your iPod before your flight ends, as it would when purchasing from your Powerbook or iMac ay home. (I counted scores of iPods on my flight).
And why not have the concept subsidised by advertisers in an effort to make internet connections on board viable? That way, passengers would get a far greater choice of materials to watch: from mainstream to user generated, RIAA music as well as podcasts, and sales of iTunes material would offer an airlines another revenue stream as it would become an affiliate of the iTunes Music store (or some other powerful alliance with Apple). Everyone wins. Keep in mind something I tell my anxious patients: At any one time there are about 5000 aircraft in the air around the world, perhaps averaging 100 captive potential consumers, 24/7/365.
The ability of airlines to keep their passengers content for longer and longer flight, as these new aircraft will allow (up to 18 hours non-stop), is not be sneezed at. It's a real challenge on its way. Perhaps inflight podcasts by someone (like me!) will be a new means for passengers to be assisted to reduce inflight anxiety.
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| Maybe I'll run the idea by some of the airline heavies attending the conference, as well as some ideas of flying-based podcasts. Seems that with this and my previous post on Leopard hosting Windows apps., I'm in full speculation mode as a way of modulating my own presentation anxiety. |
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