Apple’s iconic iOS 6 exclusive Passbook application is steadily growing, as evident by the addition of American Express, (which we covered a while ago). And we can now announce three more companies that have hopped on board: McDonald’s, Airbnb, and Eventbrite. This is a huge step in the right direction for Apple, who has been clambering to get some bigger names onto its virtual wallet. And these three are definitely considered “big” due to their recent profit margins.
Eventbrite, a ticket retailer, has seen some impressive stats as of late and is already boasting over $1 Billion USD in gross ticket sales and 50 million tickets sold. McDonald’s hasn’t posted any specific numbers concerning their recent success, but it’s easy to understand why the fast food mega giant would be considered a “big” addition. Airbnb, a guest accommodation service, has managed to book over 10 million “guest nights” across the globe, and has stated that 26 percent of their overall business comes from their mobile application. According to those numbers, this is definitely the kind of people that Apple wants to bring into its Passbook inner circle.
McDonald’s pass seems to be the most unique of the three, although we don’t have much information regarding its features. We do know however, that the enabled application is called “GoMacGo.” Unfortunately though, it seems to be only available in France at this time. The good news is that it is featured at over 50 different locations in France, which suggests that it’s going to be available at almost every McDonald’s around the globe once it starts to pop up in other countries.
Airbnb’s enabled app will allow you to slot upcoming reservations, as a personal reminder. You aren’t really required to show a physical ticket when using the service, so you wont have to use your iDevice as proof of your reservation. But you will be able to track reservation times, locations, and a slew of other things from your Passbook app. However, individuals have been complaining lately that a specific feature isn’t working correctly in conjunction with Passbook. A quote for the release features page of the new Airbnb app states that users will be able to, “Add your upcoming reservations to your iOS 6 Passbook by tapping on your upcoming reservation on the Upcoming tab.” So far though, this feature seems to be broken for some and there hasn’t been any word on a potential fix.
Eventbrite’s enabled app is easily the most intuitive of the three and is the only one that will allow you to have a virtual, scannable ticket that you can present at whatever event you are attending. Eventbrite developers claim that this is partially for the convenience of the consumer, but is also an attempt to cut down on printable tickets. After all, that saves both trees and money, which is great for everyone. There will also be integrated alerts that will remind you when and where a particular show is.
With the recent American Express addition, and now these three big contenders, I think its safe to say that Passbook is only going to strengthen as time goes on. Hopefully we will start to see more practical additions to the virtual wallet, and some small names as well, to help appeal to a wider variety of iDevice users.
