24 Juli 2015
At SparkOptimus, we try to highlight the most important news and background stories in digital, e-commerce and retail. Here is our selection of last week’s news:
Last week, Apple celebrated the fifth birthday of its iPad. There were varying opinions from the start on whether this device would actually solve an existing issue or whether it was a solution looking for a problem, but five year laters the iPad proved criticasters wrong and was sold more than a quarter of a billion times in total. The tablet has become a mainstream device for many people, as approximately 62% of the Dutch population is reported to own a tablet. Even babies know how to use them: half of toddlers can use an iPad by the age of twelve months, with 90% mastering the iPad by their second birthday. American Airlines trusts upon the iPad so much that when a frequently used iPad app crashed, 55 flights were delayed.
Within the airline industry, some interesting startups have recently come to our attention. For $2,000 a month, Beacon lets you take unlimited flights and turns the 10-minute booking process into a 30-second questionnaire. All you do is provide the company with information on who you are, where you would like to go, and when. Competitor Jetsmarter, “the Uber for planes”, has recently raised $20 million in funding from the Saudi Royal Family and well-known artist Jay-Z. Talking about Uber: we hope you have enjoyed your ice cream today…