Apple launched the Passbook feature of iOS 6 to much fanfare, with many reporters feverishly claiming that it was the future of mobile commerce, beautifully keeping all your tickets and purchases organised.
There is no doubt that it is an elegant solution for the Apple consumer – your tickets are easier to find than searching through your email at the check-in desk, and it is certainly prettier. But the real problem here is that by making it Apple-only, there is little reason for companies to buy into it. Adding Passbook integration would add another layer of complexity for their systems for little reason other than making iPhone-owners look a little smug in the queue. Apple’s smartphone market share is falling, so why would a company spend the money on Passbook integration if it was likely never to come to Android, Windows 8, or Blackberry?
There is certainly a market for a Passbook-like app, but it would need to be cross-platform or just straight HTML5 and it should also need little or no implementation from the company offering the tickets. And we’re already nearly there with companies like Kayak already offering a service where you simply forward your travel booking emails to them and they will keep your itinerary organised. The issue here is that extra step of forwarding your emails means that most people simply will not bother using the service – searching their email in the queue is fine.
All a Passbook app would need to do, would be to offer each user their own email address to use when ordering something online – meaning the purchase receipt is sent to that address, but it could also be automatically forwarded on to their regular email. That is the extra step gone, and the service instantly more useful. With this service reliant on email and then pulling the data off that, there is no extra step for ticketing companies to add, so again this service is improved.
The app developers could work with companies and offer to beautify their tickets within the app for a fee, but even without that it would be very simply to add a logo, some colours, and the information. The only trouble would be when companies change the format of their email receipts – but the app developers could work with companies to avoid brief problems here, and if it does break the email has still gone to the user’s email address so there is that backup.
Could Apple have built this app? Absolutely. Apple’s iTunes is so widely popular because it is available on both Mac and Windows platforms, meaning that everyone can use it. Apple knows the benefit of cross-platform use, but for some reason they ignore it.
Yes I know there is an unofficial Passbook app for Android called PassWallet, but that will always remain under the continued threat of Apple deciding it wants to shut it down. Passbook will only succeed if Apple either develops its own Passbook apps for other platforms, or opens up the platform to independent developers