iPads at JFK International Airport

OTG, a restau­rant man­age­ment group is one upping their com­pe­ti­tion by doing some­thing very cool – pro­vid­ing access to mobile appli­ca­tions at select­ed din­ing loca­tions through­out JFK Inter­na­tion­al Air­port in New York.  The restau­rant group pro­vides Apple iPad’s that are semi-per­ma­nent­ly affixed to each table, pre-loaded with a suite of use­ful apps, includ­ing, their very own brand­ed app.

The idea is bril­liant – allow patrons access to the news, weath­er and enter­tain­ment, while pro­vid­ing anoth­er avenue of brand immer­sion.  The bezel on the hous­ing is com­plet­ed with etched logo, and even the back­ground on the iPad has been themed accord­ing­ly.  The OTG brand­ed app is the true cen­ter of the expe­ri­ence, although the exe­cu­tion, unfor­tu­nate­ly, is sub-par.  Still, the con­cept has sig­nif­i­cant poten­tial – and we’ve been get­ting a range of inquiries, from big box retail­ers look­ing for in-store tablet solu­tions, to fash­ion brands look­ing to serve up exclu­sive con­tent for their celebri­ty clientele.

The future of mobile is here, and with near­ly as many smart­phones in use as Face­book users, it’s hard to ignore the plat­form as a viable means of inter­act­ing with your brand.  We’ll be here the day mobile phones turn com­put­ers on their head, and if there was an app that could do it, we’d build it.

Here’s one to mobile.

Cheers.