Probably the most enjoyable aspect of being part of a technology exhibition like our in-progress ITEXPO West show is when you are one of the judges for best in show awards. You get to kick the tires of really cool stuff, meet interesting people with real passion about creating the future and bringing value to customers, and you get to vote on who deserves recognition as the best of the best. That is why I was thrilled to have been the evaluator of migration.mobi’s mobile application that they developed for American Airlines (AA) which was a co-winner of ITEXPO (News - Alert) West’s “Most Innovative Product” award.

Who they are, and why the AA app deserves recognition

First, a bit of background. A roughly year-old startup, migration.mobi is an independent software development company focused on next-generation mobile platforms. The company’s primary focus is cross-platform development and post-production. VP of Operations, Roz Schneider, says the Austin-based company has already been working on over 600 apps but “we submitted the AA one, which is built on the Windows 7 platform, because we think it brings a level of utility to real-time flight information that has not existing before.”

What does she mean?

The purpose of the application is to provide AA customers easily-accessible and real-time flight information as part of the service AA provides when booking with them. Migration.mobi was able to expand AA’s offerings by implementing an Azure Cloud Service to update the start-tile of the application on the main home screen with real-time flight info. This allows the user first-hand information without having to launch the application. They were also able to allow users to pin any flight detail, whether their own reservation or another person’s, to their start-screen where they would start getting flight updates on that tile within 4 hours of the scheduled take-off time. Selecting this tile would deep-link to the flight detail page where more information is posted, rather than having to navigate through the application to this particular screen.  

For any of you who have a screen full of apps to your preferred travel “partners,” you can instantly recognize the value of this. As an AA frequent flyer myself, my only question was when the Android (News - Alert) version going to show up in my app store. Schneider said that the “get in and get it out mentality of Windows Phone 7 made it an attractive platform.” However, as with almost everyone at the show, migration.mobi’s primary focus is cross-platform app development and post-production so that apps can quickly and easily reach the broadest audiences possible for their customers. So on this one, stay tuned and check out what else is cooking at this hot (literally and figuratively) Austin start-up.

 Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place NOW, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.

Peter Bernstein is a technology industry veteran, having worked in multiple capacities with several of the industry's biggest brands, including Avaya (News - Alert), Alcatel-Lucent, Telcordia, HP, Siemens, Nortel, France Telecom, and others, and having served on the Advisory Boards of 15 technology startups. To read more of Peter's work, please visit his columnist page.