An Australian airline by the name of Qantas is handing out iPads to all of its passengers (not just those in business-class) on every Boeing 767 aircraft in the fleet. The purpose of handing out the tablets is to provide an in-flight entertainment service called QStreaming, which features more than 200 hours of on-demand content for passengers to choose from. You can find a brief overview of the new QStreaming service below:
The main purpose of the move on Qantas’ behalf is the fact that the 1.5 lb. iPad helps trim down the amount of weight that would normally be needed for a conventional in-flight entertainment system built into the headrest. The difference of weight in the typical B767 would mean that the iPads may pay for themselves within years, if not sooner as less weight means less fuel needed to cover the same distance.
What’s even more interesting here is the fact the Qantas is expected to purchase more than 5,000 iPads to help cover its fleet of jets alone. This leads to larger sales for the Cupertino California company from the get go and it wouldn’t be much of a surprise to see other airlines follow suit here. That being said, Apple’s iPad seems to be gaining ground in a whole new market (for the most part) which it had not been intentionally targeting.
To top it all off, Qantas making the move to provide iPads for customers during their flights wasn’t enough, the company is also in the process of dropping all of its BlackBerry handsets in favor of the iPhone. Here, the airline’s CIO Paul Jones said that the iPhone offers a “user-friendly interface and simple access toe mails, contacts and calendars, as well as meeting all Qantas’ security requirements.” This move helps Apple even more and it isn’t much of a surprise to see a company making this kind of decision.
Source: Qantas via The Verge
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