Back in October 2009 YDreams announced its new partnership with Montreal-based Green Vision Media (GVM), a hospitality experience solution provider with whom we co-developed James(TM) a Lifestyle Concierge product.

James(TM) is a mobile application catered specifically to the needs of travelers and hotel guests. It pretty much enables guests to find all sorts of information about the hotel and local area while also accessing interactive concierge services. James(TM) applications are cross-compatible with mobile platforms, allowing guests to access hotel information and services even when they are not in their rooms.

Recently GVM announced a partnership with LodgeNet Interactive, a leading provider of media and connectivity solutions for the hospitality industry, and Sqaure Group, a premium Apple Reseller, to ensure that James (TM) become a staple service in in-room entertainment systems at some of the world’s most prestigious hotel chains.

Through an exclusive agreement between Lodgenet and GVM, James(TM) the Lifestyle Concierge wil be made available to hotel guests via LodgeNet’s Premium IPTV solution, which also integrates the Apple® Mac mini in the rooms to provide guests with interactive services and Web browsing.

LodgeNet operates in the United States, Canada and México, serving close to 1.9 million hotel rooms, thereby reaching close to 500 million travelers annually. Sqaure Group covers Europe as the United Kingdom’s largest Apple Reseller. By incorporating James(TM) into their service offerings, the ‘LifeStyle Concierge’ is well on its way to becoming a unique global product in the hospitality sector.

This past year many cords were cut. With prices going down, CPU power going up together with battery life, people now prefer mobility to an old-school desktop. For the first time, global notebook sales exceeded the ones of desktops. But, even these are now challenged by the netbooks and the smartphones.

The affordable PC was attempted in 1999 by Oracle but it didn’t succeed. Later the OLPC idea by Nicholas Negroponte, prompted a few companies to retry the concept but, this time, a portable one. Asus was the first one to deliver and started a revolution with its eeePC.

The smartphone has also been around for a while but with little success. In this case, it was Apple that started the revolution with the iPhone. It succeeded in creating an interesting device and getting developers’ attention, making available hundreds of applications at its AppStore. Something that Nokia failed to achieve with the Symbian operating system. Others are now trying to follow Apple’s footsteps, like Google with the Android and Palm with the Pre.

2008 was a very interesting and inspiring year but, what does the future reserve for us? Mike Elgan, from Computer World, predicts that “it’s the end of the whole desktop-or-mobile concept, and the beginning of everywhere and anywhere computing”. I agree with him and the technology needed is already available. The big question is how users will interact with these devices. Keyboards and mice are out of the question. It will be based on gestures, voice, multi-touch, and so forth. Displays will have to be placed in unexpected places.

The gesture-based interaction, multi-touch and thin TV trends at the latest CES are a sign that everything is “falling into place”.

And YDreams plans to surf the next big wave of innovation…

Antão Almada
Director, Strategic Software Development