easyJet offers in-flight personal TVs

It’s been a couple of months now since the UK’s largest airline, easyJet, started offering Mezzo’s in-flight personal TVs on selected flights from the UK. For just £7.50, passengers have been able to hire a personal TV, which gives them access to a range of blockbuster movies, TV programmes, music and games.

We’re really pleased to be working with easyJet and are proud of our fantastic TV experience offering. We have been working on developing the Android platform for in-flight entertainment for nearly 12 months and we’re excited that this is the first deployment of an android OS Tablet. The Dell tablet has been modified - with Dell’s permission - to enable us to achieve Hollywood studio approvals and manage our development of the Android platform.

The passenger experience is a step-change from even the latest installed system: the latest touch screen supports "gestures"; there are games that make the most of motion sensors; and the near HD quality of the 5” screen means an exceptional entertainment experience.

The lightweight device is only 290g per unit and sets a new benchmark for in-flight entertainment solutions for narrow-bodied jets, allowing easyJet to carry 19 personal TVs in a single drawer of its in-flight kiosk.

When we launched the service, Nick Hughes, easyJet’s Head of Ancillary Revenue, said they were delighted to be working with Mezzo. They saw their in-flight offering go from strength to strength, and they thought the new, easy to use personal TVs would give their passengers an even greater experience when flying with them.

The next three months will see the achievement of additional milestones for Mezzo as we launch a selection from the Samsung Galaxy range of tablets with easyJet customers and also gradually roll the service out to additional UK airports. easyJet’s customers will be the first in the UK to experience this much-anticipated and rightfully hyped in-flight entertainment experience. Watch this space!

iPad: A false dawn for IFE

I think the Samsung 10" tablet will be the first to seriously threaten Apple's iPad dominance.

http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxytab/

With the continuing challenge to get the best content for the iPad for deployment in IFE, and the imminent arrival of lighter, thinner and more powerful tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 running the increasingly popular Google Android OS, it seems that the days of the iPad dominance is about to fade.   In the UK market, its taken three years for the iPhone to fall from grace and now 5 out the top 6 phones run android and the other one is a blackberry.

"Content is King" and the inability to get the iPad approved for early window content and iTunes supplier license agreement that locks out all iTunes content for IFE, means that those who want to give their passengers the very best experience should seek alternatives.  If you dont want to wait for the 10.1 but can settle for a more traditional size screen for IFE personal TVs, Mezzo has already customised the Dell Streak 5" and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 and have gained approval for their security solution to show early window content.

Installed IFE...and low ROI

Traditional installed inflight entertainment systems are still seen by many as the main option, but as costs are high and technology is always behind the consumer curve do they really offer a good ROI?

Although in theory traditional IFE and Communications (IFEC) systems installed in the seat back are easy to operate and cost effective, in reality they are anything but.  Likely to be expensive to purchase, the experience in the industry is that they require continuous and expensive engineering support to keep working, and with the additional weight of servers and miles of cabling results in significant extra fuel burn.  This all adds up to huge lifetime costs; most airlines may never achieve a decent return on investment. 

The solution of using COTS devices repurposed for IFEC seems like the most sensible option, combining the latest technology with the ease of operation of an installed system...  The downside is all the integration effort, costs and time still has to happen, as Sally Gethin points out in her recent blog http://gethins-ifec.com/?p=573  

Without an industry step change in seat design, only airlines who can afford to develop their own seat modifications will be able to adopt these solutions and there may be a higher seat cost resulting from the requirement for bespoke seat design.   The market for these products looks to be extremely limited.  I have no doubt that these systems will continue to be "available" and may on the face of it look like a low cost option, however the development costs still need to be recouped and so watch out for the sting in the tail - high after-sales costs.