Where to eat or shop? Just ask your phone’s Concierge
By Tham Yuen-C
SINGAPOREANS and tourists can now access a new free cellphone service that recommends places where they can eat, shop and even party.Called The Digital Concierge, users can sign up for free and download the software for their phones at www.digitalconcierge.sg
Once that is done, they simply click on an icon that will appear on their phones, and can then navigate the Concierge much like a typical mobile phone menu.
The system is currently on trial. For now, it will tell users what shopping centre, restaurant or nightspot is closest to where they are - for free.
When it is fully operational next year, it will deliver news about shopping bargains to a user’s phone even as he walks through a mall, let visitors interact with one another via an online social network that they can access through their devices, and even give information such as the hotels within a particular area.
Other content, such as a restaurant search engine and daily news snippets, will also be available then, but this
will require users to connect to the Internet using their phones.
During the nine-month trial period, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) - which developed the system together with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) - hopes to collect feedback from merchants and at least 5,000 users.
This will help fine-tune the service, said Mr Tan Eng Pheng, the IDA’s cluster director for finance, tourism, trade and manufacturing, before it is officially launched next year.
The system, unveiled yesterday on the sidelines of the Infocomm Media Business Exchange (imbX) trade show, is one of the key programmes under the country’s IT Masterplan, which maps out the direction of Singapore’s infocomm development until 2015.
A budget of between $3 million and $10 million has been set aside for the Concierge, the IDA said earlier this year.
Explaining the aim of the service, IDA chief executive Chan Yeng Kit yesterday said: ‘We hope to elevate the experience of tourists here through the use of technology.’
The STB has been working with merchants and hotels to include their information in the service for free.
STB deputy chairman and chief executive Lim Neo Chian said: ‘This initiative will not only benefit visitors… but also enhance the tourism industry’s business competitiveness, efficiency and growth.’
Source: The Straits Times, 20 June 2007
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