Idetica, formerly The Smith Group, has built an application for British Airways which means for the first time, BA customers can access selected on-line services using palm-top devices.
The application, which has initially been launched on 3Com`s Palm Pilot device family, provides access to information on schedules, real-time departures and arrivals and seat availability.
The application will be distributed on a free CD ROM, to be given away with each Palm Pilot device sold throughout the EU from Summer 2001. The services will also be accessible through the Omnisky and AvantGo portals. The new application was developed in just two weeks and is based on the existing systems architecture built previously by Idetica to support BA`s WAP service. The application itself was written using a subset of HTML version 3.2, specifically tailored for the form factor of Palm devices. Users can access information in real-time with a data call from a standard mobile phone, linked to the Palm device through its infrared port. BA have also commissioned Idetica to develop an application for Microsoft`s PocketPC operating system for devices such as the Compaq iPAQ.
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