Qantas Trialing iPad for In-Flight Entertainment, Android Lands Boeing Contract
By 
The love affair for tablets by airline companies and aircraft manufacturers continues to produce new stories around the world.
Apple has done extremely well with the iPad across different airlines – as a replacement to paper flight manuals and navigational charts, and also as a way to improve customer service. Now Qantas has announced its testing of Apple’s tablet as an option to its in-flight entertainment system. Android has also scored a win after Boeing selected the operating system for the next-gen 787 Dreamliner touch screens.
Qantas plans to use the iPad to entertain passengers via a Wi-Fi connection to a centric server on the aircraft. We’ve seen how good the iPad has behaved when streaming video content since it hit the market on 2010. Qantas is certainly showing trust on Apple’s tablet by possibly making it a flagship addition to its Boeing 767-300 line.
Qantas will trial the iPad for six weeks, beginning end of October and finishing by early December. The trial will be limited to one aircraft, the Boeing 767-300.
The iPad 2 is the centerpiece for the trial, and Qantas will make sure everyone gets a chance to test it. All passengers will get access to an iPad 2 that will be running a ‘Q Streaming’ app that serves as the front-end client to request on demand content via Wi-Fi access points located inside the plane.
Once the trial is finished, Qantas is already planning to make its ‘Q Streaming’ app available to consumers as a free download. The next time you fly on Qantas, perhaps, you will be able to use your own iPad to stream video content.
On a related story, Android’s operating system has also secured a big win with Boeing. The aircraft manufacturer has selected Google’s operating system to provide video, music and airline apps for their next-generation 787 Dreamliner.
According to Mark Larson, technical manager at Boeing’s Dreamliner Gallery, “the new Dreamliner will launch with integrated Android-based servers and touch screens.”
Get used to this. This new trend will be more prevalent over the next 12 months. I will not be surprised to see many airlines and aircraft manufacturers not only equipping their planes with more power sockets and better touch screens, but also fully embracing all tablets and smartphones to make sure you enjoy your experience up in the air.
[via: Australian Business Traveller]
[Image Credit: Australian Business Traveller]
