Free WiFi in the air - with GOL

One of Brazil's leading airlines, GOL, is making new ground with a free on-board WiFi connection.

Before you raise your arms too high: The service is used for on-board entertainment, and not for connecting to the Internet. Anyway, this is a great idea, and a great step for on board entertainment.

I am getting tired of the slow badly designed entertainment systems that airlines are installing, and as many bring their smartphones, tablets, and PCs with them on board, why not using them to connect to a large collection of multimedia content. The system is to a certain extent rendering the content to the type of screen that you are used to work with. Interactivity on the current systems is really bad, and the typing is almost impossible, but all this can now change, and you can get on with real interactivity while on board. I tested the new system on a flight from Sao Paulo to Rio, and I am just sorry that the trip was so short.

This is a great way of doing stepwise innovation. Get people used to using their own devices on-board, and guess what: The next step to connect this service to the Internet is very easy. GOL can also offer downloads that you can bring with you, which in turn will become a new platform for branded services.

You can just go on thinking about the potential of this new service. Segmented advertising: Let the system know your preferences and you can get targeted advertising. When you do your on-line check in, you may, in the future, be able to chose among films from a great selection that you would like to see during the flight, and the films are loaded to the aircraft system while on the ground.

Personal devices have much more processing power per user then the current installed devices. This means that you can run much more complex and graphics demanding games.

Thumbs up for GOL. Great initiative. I am already eager to see the next step.

Google is on to something - again

Once again Google is showing the Internet is gaining traction as a source of revenue with it's own source of growth power. The global credit crunch is most likely causing a drop in overall advertising spending, but the continued migration to digital advertising is still giving great benefits to companies like Google, which announced their quarterly result today with revenue jumping 37% over last quarter to $7,5bn.

It is now about two years since Google started talking about its Mobile First strategy, and investors have been so what uncertain about the ability for mobile advertising to contribute significantly to the total revenue, and last year Google announced that the annualised renevue from mobile was about $1bn. According to Financial Times, the revenue from mobile has now climbed up to $2,5bn annualised. A 150% growth in one year.

This shows that Steve Jobs was right when he said that innovation should always stay ahead of the curve, so asking people what they want is really just making you look back. The high penetration of the Android OS for smartphones is also contributing to Google's strategy on acquiring data about our habits, which is so important for brining relevant advertising to the small screen. This is very important, as people will not tolerate too much irrelevant crap on their phones, which are considered to be more personal than both the TV and traditional computer screen.