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Avantgo, a division of iAnywhere Solutions, a subsidiary of Sybase, today introduced a beta edition of a new Cadillac sponsored travel application. Through the addition of a high profile travel service tab in the Avantgo client software, users can now access flight itineraries, weather, directions, maps, and city guides for 98 metro areas worldwide.

The travel tab builds on a new Avantgo user interface, which was launched in January. Expedia Corporate Travel, Northwest Airlines, Sabre Virtually There and Travelocity Business provide the initial content for the travel service. MapPoint delivers the maps.

Avantgo senior director Neil Versen told PDAStreet the mobile Internet service would add many other major airlines and travel portals by the time the travel application officially launches this July. The currently unnamed service will receive its official moniker at that time as well.

With the new tab, Avantgo asserts subscribers gain a convenient one-stop shop for all their mobile travel application needs, while content partners like Travelocity benefit by having their brands more available to consumers. After a user chooses a primary provider, its logo becomes a fixture on every page of the service for that individual.

"AvantGo's travel application gives our users the ability to access their travel itineraries, weather, maps, directions and city guides anytime, anywhere on the go. It also enables major online travel services, airline, hotel, and car rental companies to increase the value of their brand to their customers," according to Versen.

Interactive
The travel application is the opening salvo towards additional interactive content from Avantgo. Whereas traditional channels update information during a sync to the Avantgo server, the travel service leverages Dynamic HTML to deliver on-device applications right to a user's PDA and smartphone. With these programs, subscribers can manipulate information without syncing.

When converting currency in the past you would need to enter a dollar amount before synchronization to have it converted to euros upon connecting to the Avantgo server, for example. With the currency converter coming to the travel application in July, you'll be able to convert currency on your mobile device without server synchronization. Avantgo updates exchange rates on the handheld when syncing, of course.

Versen says the addition of interactive content offers greater value to consumers, while getting them to use Avantgo more than they normally might to make advertisers happy. Many other examples of interactive on-device content will become available throughout the coming months.

For example, Versen intimated Avantgo is developing an app to let users 'build' a car by selecting specific features and accessories to determine the cost of buying or leasing an automobile right from a handheld—just like you can today on many car dealer Web sites—with or without a wireless connection.

Avantgo is also creating an interactive shopping list application. This program would be a tool supermarket chains could present to subscribers from within their regular Avantgo channel.

The applet would offer a master list of items to users on their PDA or handset. All they would have to do is check items off to dynamically create a personalized shopping list, which would also contain an up-to-date listing of sales items.

Avantgo is also working on a new advertising technology that aggregates all the service's content to dynamically serve ads on a profile basis. The aim is to better target individuals based on their interests and other personal factors, just like advertisers currently do in other mediums.

In the end, Avantgo would like to become known as not only a mobile content service, but an application provider as well. Versen emphasizes this goal when he says, “Today's beta launch demonstrates AvantGo's leadership and commitment to delivering the most useful mobile applications in the world."