Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

United Continental deploys 11,000 iPads under Apple's B2B App Store program

By | August 23, 2011, 6:46am PDT

Summary: Boeing’s Jeppesen unit will deliver customer apps to 11,000 iPads deployed throughout United Continental via Apple’s B2B App Store.

United Continental said it will deploy 11,000 Apple iPads to its pilots in an effort to create a “paperless flight deck.”

In a statement, United Continental said that all pilots will get iPads.

These electronic flight bags will replace flight manuals and deliver aeronautical navigation charts via an app. All pilots will have iPads by the end of the year.

The iPads feature the Jeppesen Mobile FliteDeck app. Jeppesen is a unit of Boeing and has delivered flight plans, navigation and other data to pilots via paper.

Jeppesen was an early adopter of Apple’s B2B App Store and previously said that the company would deliver custom apps via the iPad. Last month, Chris Kiley, Jeppesen senior manager of Web and mobile solutions, said Apple’s B2B App Store enabled “us to better manage specific app versions among a large customer base.”

For United Continental, the move to paperless iPads will save 326,000 gallons of jet fuel each year. For airlines, every ounce of weight that’s cut from a flight translates into fuel savings.

Also see: Apple’s B2B App Store: Four reasons why it’s a big enterprise deal

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Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

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Larry Dignan

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Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

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RE: United Continental deploys 11,000 iPads under Apple's B2B App Store program
Bit-Smacker 24th Aug
@CowLauncher
I agree. The current problem with the entire world is the cheap-as-possible Wallmart mentality that everyone has. We need to shift our desire back to quality. Unfortunately, with the economy in the hole, the desire for quality has taken a back seat as a "nice-to-have," where people are more concerned with quantity at lowest cost to satisfy basic needs.

When the economy comes back, companies that focus on quality will be well positioned and leave the cheap junk manufacturers shaking their heads in disbelief. It's easy to copy a product, but difficult to do it at the same or better quality level. Once quality becomes important again, the Chinese junk factories will have to tool up or shut down.
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Truly a great win for Apple
toddybottom 23rd Aug
This simply reinforces the only conclusion one can possibly come to: there is absolutely no effective competition in the tablet space.

United Continental did the only thing they should: buy the best tablets for their pilots. That is the iPad, obviously.

What I would really like to know is how closely they considered any of the competition. Was it a tough call between the Xoom and the iPad? The TouchPad and the iPad? The Galaxy and the iPad?

Or was it a no brainer. Did the iPad absolutely and totally crush every other tablet in United Continental's tests?

I think I know the answer to that one but it would be interesting to find out.

Now that iPad is the only sane choice for the personal consumer and the business consumer, can any other tablet possibly catch up? Ever? Other tablets cost more to make because Apple has the supply chain wrapped up. Other tablets have no access to the iTunes ecosystem. Other tablets don't work well with the #1 music player in the world and the #1 smartphone in the world.

There will only ever be 1 successful tablet: the iPad.

It is a sick market.

We all lose.
@toddybottom (NonZealot)

Now that iPad is the only sane choice for the personal consumer and the business consumer, can any other tablet possibly catch up? Ever? Other tablets cost more to make because Apple has the supply chain wrapped up. Other tablets have no access to the iTunes ecosystem. Other tablets don't work well with the #1 music player in the world and the #1 smartphone in the world..............

Oh cry me a river.

Imagine Microsoft pulling an HP and killing the XBox 49 days after releasing it? We probably would only have the Sony Playstation platform today as the only choice for hcore gamers. But they didn't. They felt the XBox was worth the huge investment and the years being in the red. And they did not cry about Sony owning the market either, they competed.

Imagine a then little Apple deciding they could no longer innovate back in the mid 90's, because the monopoly Microsoft already controlled 95% of the PC market. It's not worth it to invest in Macs anymore. Or to innovate and to 'think differently'. We wouldn't have those iconic iMacs which kick-started the company's recovery back into relevancy. Followed by the iPod, then the iPhone and now the iPad.

I feel no pity for HP, Acer and all the other competitors who feel it's not worth the investment and refuses to innovate in this space. A space which I see as the future of computing.
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@dave95.
So I'm glad you agree with me.

What makes me sad is that we will have to endure 20 years of absolutely no innovation in the tablet space while a little "insert company name here" starts to think differently and is able to claw their way into relevancy in order to create something that sane people can actually start to consider buying instead of the iPad 18 (which will be exactly like the iPads 5-17 because innovation will have slowed to a crawl).

You paint the Apple vs MS history like it was all good. Are you honestly saying that the 90s and 00s were a good part of computing history because Apple took that long to take on MS? Or did you think the market was sick and we were all losing while one company had 90%+ of the market?

I'm not asking for anyone to pity HP, Acer, or anyone else and I challenge you to find anyplace where I've asked for such pity for those losers. They are losers just like Apple was a loser in the 90s. The problem is that it takes a long time for a winner to emerge that is strong enough to take on a juggernaut like MS in the 90s and 00s and a juggernaut like Apple in the 10s. During those long years, we (the consumers) suffer.

We all lose.
@toddybottom (NonZealot)

No we don't agree. Funny how you left out XBox. In just a few years (2?) the XBox became a strong competitor to Sony's PlayStation, even grabbing at the #1 spot. All because Microsoft decided to compete and challenge the leader Sony....not employ apologists to complain on blogs about how Sony had a hold on the market and developers. Boo hoo it's a sick market.

Besides Microsoft basically only had Apple's Mac OS as a competitor in the 90's and 00's. The tablet market is wide open today, anyone can grab Google's free OS and innovate/invest their way into this vary important market. There are many companies that have the resources to challenge Apple today.
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I truly hope you are right dave
toddybottom 23rd Aug
@dave95.
"There are many companies that have the resources to challenge Apple today"

If in 2 years, iPad still has 90%+ of the profit in the market, I was right.

If in 2 years there are several strong competitors making profitable tablets, you were right.

For the record, I hope it is you who is right. If I'm right, we all lose.
@toddybottom actually this is how the market should work. For too long the consumer tech market was the Windows PC just because that was what they used at work. It was a market based on zero consumer qualitative awareness. Those days are gone and now companies that once sold products just because are now being forced to actually compete based on having a worthwhile product that is at least as good as the iPad. So far no one has beed able to do this.

We don't lose. We lose when we happily buy garbage and accept poor service. We speak with our wallets and we are saying that stuff isn't good enough..not compared to Apple products. This can only help to competitors to get serious instead of just trying to half @ss it like they have been.
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@CowLauncher
The ideal market has several strong competitors in it.

Are you seriously suggesting that there are several strong competitors in the tablet and smartphone and music player markets?

Of course there aren't.

And that's okay for a short period of time.

The problem is that this is not going to be a short period of time. In order for a strong competitor to emerge in the tablet market, they need to lose money for many, many, many years while they overcome the advantage that Apple has built itself in the supply chain area and in the iTunes ecosystem chain.

I don't blame Apple for that. Just the reverse. Apple did a fantastic job. Just like MS did a fantastic job and I find it humorous that you see any difference between the market back then and the market today. It's as if you think that people should have been buying substandard products from Apple back then "just because" but today, they shouldn't buy substandard products "just because". MS didn't get in trouble for how they became a monopoly, they got in trouble for how they maintained that monopoly. MS became a monopoly because companies like Apple were putting out terrible products. MS became a monopoly because there weren't strong competitors in the market.

You decry that yet you cheer this?

We all lost back when MS had 90%+ of the market (even though their products were the best) and we all lose today while Apple has 90%+ of the market (even though their products are the best).

We all win when there are several strong competitors in the market. That is how the market should work.
@toddybottom: We all lost back when MS had 90%+ of the market (even though their products were the best)
In what sense? The Windows 9x family was buggy crash prone and in general did not work well at all. NT was a better solution, but prohibitively expensive. The Windows 9x family of products were nothing more than file management programs that ran on top of DOS. The number one reason for Microsoft?s success, is the old adage that no one got fired for choosing IBM, which became: No one got fired for choosing Microsoft. It was not product quality, but the race to the bottom that promoted Microsoft?s dominance. Granted the Mac OS was not a whole lot better, but it was more reliable and worked better than Windows did at the time. Microsoft has made larger strides in improving Windows than Apple has in improving Mac OS, but there was more wrong with Windows at the time.
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Absolutely none of it is based on fact but that's okay, you are allowed to think what you do.

The truth is that Windows became #1 because it had the best ecosystem while still being the best OS for business (NT line) and the best OS for consumers (Win9X line). Just like the iPad doesn't have the most ports or mghz or more informative lock screen, it is still the best because when you put everything together, it totally annihilates the competition.

The people who trot out the "everyone was forced to buy Windows" ignore 2 facts:
1. Apple was actually first so no one was ever forced to buy Windows.
2. People aren't total idiots. They buy what is best for them. That was true back when Windows was #1 and it is true today while iPad is #1.

Regardless, thanks for sharing your opinion. I'm always interested in what you have to say.
@toddybottom what alternate reality do you live in? Windows 9x was the worst excuse for an OS ever. Windows was not even an OS, but a file management program that ran on top of DOS. This is why there was a large difference between Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.
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Not quite...
olePigeon 23rd Aug
"We all lost back when MS had 90%+ of the market (even though their products were the best) and we all lose today while Apple has 90%+ of the market (even though their products are the best)."

Not quite. Microsoft garnered 90% of the market through illegal maneuvering. They got caught and were (sort of) punished for it.

Apple garnered 90% of the market through innovation and clever marketing.
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Revisionist History
s.jurney@... 23rd Aug
@toddybottom

Windows did not succeed because it was a superior product. It succeeded because it allowed lots of other companies to make money on hardware sales. Apple wanted to control the user experience from hardware to software (just like now) but they miscalculated how many folks would view the cost of a computer = to the cost of the initial purchase.

Low price PCs beat Apple's higher priced Macs when company purchases were being budgeted. The difference now is that Apple still wants to control the user experience BUT it is selling the hardware at a very competitive price.

Time will tell if this will continue to play out in Apple's favor.
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Message has been deleted.
toddybottom Updated - 23rd Aug
  • Flagged
@toddybottom you are either delusional, or some strange fanboy. Windows in the 90s was anything but stable. Look up (Google) dll hell, Blue Screen of Death, Windows problems and you will see what I am talking about.
@CowLauncher
I agree. The current problem with the entire world is the cheap-as-possible Wallmart mentality that everyone has. We need to shift our desire back to quality. Unfortunately, with the economy in the hole, the desire for quality has taken a back seat as a "nice-to-have," where people are more concerned with quantity at lowest cost to satisfy basic needs.

When the economy comes back, companies that focus on quality will be well positioned and leave the cheap junk manufacturers shaking their heads in disbelief. It's easy to copy a product, but difficult to do it at the same or better quality level. Once quality becomes important again, the Chinese junk factories will have to tool up or shut down.
@toddybottom It's the app. They wrote the app for the dominant device. Too bad.
@toddybottom At least in this case there was more for United and Continental to consider than just the hardware. In considering alternatives (I don't know "how closely" other options were examined, but I know they were), a critical factor was chart delivery. Apple figured out (as you allude to) a long time ago that delivery is key. So you're right, United and Continental made the best choice.

I don't know if there is effective competition or not in this space, but I remember back in about 1996 thinking that no company would ever be able to compete effectively with Netscape. That's also the year I should have put about $1,000 into Apple, a company whose products I had used since the first Mac was introduced. At $14 a share it seemed like a good price, but the prospects for the company didn't look good, and I gave it a miss.

It is true that domination often stifles innovation, but all it takes is for one dissatisfied consumer -- or one visionary -- to see a better option, and the world can change.

Somewhere out there is someone, whether in a big company or in their garage, with a better idea, and they're working on it with a passion. If Apple knows that, they'll keep innovating. And if they don't, they will one day be beaten.

So the only statement you make that I disagree with is "There will only ever be 1 successful tablet: the iPad."

It sounds so like me from 15 years ago, and I wish I would have disagreed with me then.
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I totally agree with you
toddybottom 23rd Aug
@lewismg
"Somewhere out there is someone, whether in a big company or in their garage, with a better idea, and they're working on it with a passion."

It won't be a tablet though. The tablet market is done. No one ever beat MS on the desktop. Apple hasn't and won't. Linux hasn't and won't. Apple is winning today because they went off in a different direction. If someone 15 years ago said "there will only ever be 1 successful licensed desktop OS", they would be right. There never has been another successful licensed desktop OS. Apple is successful because they quit the licensed desktop OS. A majority of Apple's income now comes from everything BUT their Macs.

The funny thing to me is that while everyone is saying "just wait, someone will come along", they ignore my answer of "yes, I agree, we just have to suffer through 20 years of stagnation until they do". Eventually someone will dethrone Apple. In the meantime, we will suffer. That is my prediction.
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RE: United Continental deploys 11,000 iPads under Apple's B2B App Store program
LoverockDavidson_-24231404894599612871915491754222 23rd Aug
I can already see two things happening here. 1. An increase in "lost" iPads. 2. Pilots forgetting how to do manual navigation.
@LoverockDavidson_ LMFAO grin
@LoverockDavidson_

How is it any different for a pilot to look at a map on a piece of paper compared to on an ipad. Pilots aren't going to "forget" how to fly because the format of their maps changes. If anything, it will improve performance because all of the information from over 12,000 pages of charts and manuals will now be at their fingertips.
Great win for Apple. 11,000 iPads with a major Airline. The pilots must love this. Instead of carrying a 40 pound plus bag manual, they now have the slickest tablet around.

This is a great example of stunning engineering, hardware and software that no one can replicate yet. Love to see other companies learn from Apple so that we have more competitions that benefit us all.

I bought an Android tablet but shortly returned and got the iPad 2 instead. What a world of difference. The UI is exceptionally fluid and awesome user experience. This was my first Apple product for me and my family and I am very very impressed.
@Plogpower
i have a friend that works in amtrak dispatching trains and he has a 45 pound bag with rules, manuals, maps etc. wait till i tell him about this! he could had all his rules at the tip of his hands with an ipad. hopefully amtrak will get these too.

in a year you will see all airlines doing this and in a few years, kids will not have books or notebooks. it will be like starship academy!
But will they have to shut them off during take-off and landing, or when the plane is under 10,000 feet? If the pilot can have their "approved electronic device" turned on all the time, why can't I?
@keithparks Let the pilot (and CIE) be the judge. I'll follow what they tell me, they have my life in their hand.
"We all lose" given the iPad's win of the United Continental account? I bet toddybottom was singing hosannas when Samsung announced a couple of months back that it was the in-flight entertainment of choice for American. Apple's corporate culture isn't the same as Microsoft's & its Wintel partners. Constant innovation is a way of life in Cupertino; only an Android/Google apologist would claim otherwise. "We all lose" refers to laggards, copycats, members of their supply chain & their media hacks.
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326,000 gallons?
goyta 23rd Aug
That may sound like a lot, but it's really just about two round-trips from Chicago to Tokyo or Beijing on a 747-400. A drop in the ocean of United-Continental's operating expenses. Paper has a still unmatched advantage: it doesn't need any special equipment but a source of light to be read.

I wonder what they will do when the iPad's notoriously non-replaceable battery runs out on a 14-hour long flight to Asia (will they will leave a backup one off?) - not to mention that one would think that such things as flight manuals and Jeppesen navigation maps would be already incorporated to the on-board computers' database in all but the oldest jets (and contrary to Delta, which inherited Northwest's aging fleet, and American, which is slow to modernize its fleet, United-Continental has a fairly young fleet). And wouldn't an iPad be distracting from flight controls? (Remember that Northwest flight that overshot MSP allegedly because pilots were distracted using their laptops?)

In short, there are some details that seem to be missing for me to fully understand United-Continental's decision and the usefulness of an iPad in a cockpit.
@goyta,
" Paper has a still unmatched advantage: it doesn't need any special equipment but a source of light to be read."

Paper Jeppesen and paper flight manuals need to be periodically updated. This is done by swapping out individual pages in those manuals. It is a very time consuming job. Electronic versions can update with the press of a button. BTW the standard paper revision service for one year costs $887 for the full USA.

http://jeppdirect.jeppesen.com/main/store/legal/awm/assets/downloads/2011AmerPriceList.pdf

One more point, some passenger seats now have charging jacks (depends on class of seat and airline) I don't see why a charging jack could not be added to the cockpit.
@goyta
As a pilot myself, and CEO/Owner of a moderate sized airline in Europe,I can tell you, searching thru a bag, for the correct chart, manual or other item is no LESS distracting that laying a tablet on the control yoke. I have seen pretty clever contraptions other pilots independantly create to just LEAVE their tablet on the yoke. Depends on the airframe and controls, obviously. But i DO agree with you and others, Apples' batteries are notorious for short life. I make the flight JFK to SVO ( Moscow ) twice weekly.,, and my iPhone can't last HALF the flight. NOT EVEN the portion we can use them on other commercial flights, ( I often use Aeroflot, which has older units with NO USB charging unlike the Air France new units!) OUR OWN aircraft are "all business class" with ports at each station, so i don't have that problem,when deadheading back.. and as a retired USAF fighter jock, i can TELL YOU, I have used wireless devices ALL the time they were available and NEVER, NEVER have seen ANY SIGN they interfere with onboard systems. This entire discussion is a TRAVESTY, The signals are IN THE AIR regardless of altitude, or whether your system is ON OR OFF, using it can in NO WAY interfere with onboard instrumentation, it is ALL a load of BS.. FORTY years a pilot,. military and Commercial i have NEVER SEEN a battery that could last thru an entire overseas flight, be it Apple, Moto, Nokia or otherwise.. to be SAFE the cockpits need a power outlet, and leave the tablets POWERED, not run on batteries! Or mandatory paper BACKUPS. even for the newer units which DO have integrated flight systems. We own numerous newer Gulfstream and Airbus units, all with digital manuals and flight charts etc, and STILL REFUSE to allow our units to leave the ground without PAPER someplace aboard! WHAT MAKES ME even more nervous is the intimate tie between Jeppesen and Boeing.. which might well leave other manufacturers' airframes lacking in support at a crucial time! of course, JMHO...
Any black and white eInk based slate would do for the pilots. There are plenty, much cheaper than the iPad.

But, such move for the airline is significant and they need a partner that is sure to be there tomorrow, if the project runs well and pilots demand such devices. Android is joke. Or rather, opportunistic initiative for those manufacturers. Or just an experiment for some. None of the Android vendors can promise any stability, because someone else develops the platform etc.

Even if the iPad may not be the perfect device, technically, it also add style to pilots -- they can show their net shiny workmate to other people -- and this adds to the image of the company. It is not by incident those people wear nice uniforms.
On the last line of the piece about saving fuel. 11,000 iPads save 326,000 gallons per year. That's 30 gallons per iPad per year. At $3 per gallon, that $90 saved per iPad per year. An expensive way of making that saving. Perhaps a little greener (but what is the CO2 cost of making and using an iPad?).
@Alexander.J.Bird@...

One assumes they would not have to re-buy 11,000 iPads every year.
@Alexander.J.Bird@...

Fuel is not the only savings. There will be reduced OJI's and in addition to eliminating manuals, there are several hundred pages of updates to the manuals each month per pilot. Injuries, paper costs, fuel savings....... really a no brainer for the company.
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They could have saved a few hundred dollars and bought Kindle's for everyone and got the exact same results.
@omdguy - I wasn't aware the Kindle had apps written for it.
@omdguy The kindle lacks colour; that's a big no no when it comes to maps silly
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Plan B?
IslandBoy_77 23rd Aug
So, if the App crashes or the iPad is damaged so as to be unusable, is there a "plan B"? Are we so confident in both the hardware and software as to have no "paper" backup to fall back on? Are we happy about that? While it seems like a good (dare I say "magical"? :-P) idea, it just doesn't seem safe without a "Plan B".
and that's as a media consumption device, this time, as an electronic reference manual. Hmmm. don't all tablets have that same capability?

Methinks that Apple is using the airline and Boeing as a publicity stunt, and those iPads were probably given for free or at very low cost.
Boeing would have saved even more fuel with the light, secure and powerful Blackberry Playbook!
Oops! How dare I mention the "B" word on ZDNet!
Frankly, Apple will continue to win until Windows Ei8ht arrives.

There will only be an iPad market until Windows Ei8ht arrives. Frankly, iOS doesn't stand a chance against a swiss-army-knife like OS like Windows Ei8ght. With tablets like the upcoming Lenova ThinkPad running Windows Ei8ht, it just might be time for my laptop to bite the dust wink
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Fail?
TrueDinosaur 24th Aug
These are electronic devices. The battery can die. The screen can get cracked in the flight bag. Heck, the OS could lock up. And what about the ergonomics? As I understand it, during flight the paper Jepp chart is clipped to the yoke. Where is the iPad during flight?

Does this mean I can use my iPad during take off and landing? Apparently the crew will be.

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