Author: Julie Campbell

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePWEJ2cNMog]

The service has now been rolled out in order to help to make traveling more convenient.

Google has just announced that they have rolled out their automatic digital boarding passes based on QR codes through their Google Now service in order to allow travelers to use their mobile devices for a number of convenient purposes.

The Google Now service helps users stay up to date on everything from sports scores to weather conditions.

This latest announcement has revealed that the anticipated QR codes and associated mobile boarding passes have now gone live. It was made through the @Android Twitter account held by the company. The posting came with a video that helped to demonstrate this brand new feature to the service.

The QR codes help airline travelers to avoid unnecessary lines and boarding pass kiosks.

They also provide more convenience over having to print out the boarding passes at home, as the QR codes and additional information is all displayed on the mobile device screen. For individuals who already have smartphones and who bring them with them whenever they travel, it eliminates a number of steps that can help to reduce the number of hassles along the way.

The service is possible by accessing the flight confirmation emails that the smartphone user has on his or her device, and then automatically draws up the boarding pass based on that information. In order to actually use this pass. The travelers can simply check in with the airline as they usually would with a paper boarding pass.

Once the traveler has checked in, the Google Now automatically retrieves the digital boarding pass which is assigned its own unique QR codes. This is done on behalf of the traveler, without any additional required effort. Aside from the barcode, it also contains the terminal, gate, and seat number, as would be assigned on a printed boarding pass.

When the passenger arrives at the gate, the QR codes can be displayed on the device screen so that they can be scanned by the attendant. So far, the service works only with certain specific airlines – which have not yet been identified by Google. However, this information will likely be released over time. At the moment Google Now is available only on devices running Android 4.1 or higher.

A new report has predicted that tablets will lead the channel to a $50 billion in 2014.

A recently released report by eMarketer has added yet another piece of evidence to the claim that mobile is no longer a convenience or a fad, as t-commerce starts to come into its own and will lead the way to a highly valuable marketplace.

The report indicated that tablets alone will generate $24 billion in sales in North America by the end of 2013.

However, that is merely the beginning, as the report also indicated that this t-commerce figure will climb nearly twice over, to reach $50 billion in the United States by the close of 2014. This not only indicates that the role of mobile is growing explosively, but it also shows that tablets are now playing a vitally important part in this increase.

The spending in both m- and t-commerce has jumped tremendously since 2011.

Including both smartphone and t-commerce, the mobile spending reached nearly $25 billion. That represents a spike of 81 percent over the figures that were achieved the year before. This year, it is expected that m-commerce will be cutting a share worth 15 percent of the total online sales numbers, according to the predictions from eMarketer.

From the t-commerce side, on its own, tablets will make up over 9 percent of all sales made online. By 2016, eMarketer feels that tablets will represent up to 17 percent of the total sales online.

The majority of the t-commerce traffic will come from the popular iPad. The report predicted that “the bulk” of the tablet based web traffic will come from this Apple device, as it currently accounts for around 90 percent of the web traffic from this type of gadget. Though this may shift somewhat within that time, it will still maintain its majority share, said the report.

Previously performed t-commerce research has already indicated that consumers are more likely to use a tablet than a smartphone for doing their shopping online. It also determined that when those customers make purchases, they’re likely to spend a larger average amount of money than their cell phone using counterparts.