Diners’ delight: Restaurant firm to intro 7,000 new iPads at three international airports

By Trevor Mogg June 7, 2012

Airport food and beverage operator OTG is hoping to attract extra customers to its restaurants with its plans to introduce 7,000 new iPads at three international airports in North America.

The roll-out, which will take place over the next 18 months, follows a test run of the service at LaGuardia airport where 300 iPads were made available for use by diners. Around 2,000 more of Apple’s popular device will be added to dining locations at LaGuardia as OTG expands its program. Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport will also get 2,500 iPads, as will Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Using OTG’s custom browser, diners will be able to use the iPads to order meals through a visual menu, surf the web, check their Facebook and Twitter accounts, get up-to-date flight information and play games.

Security is assured by simply hitting the home button, at which moment any personal information and browsing history will be wiped from the tablet.

“We believe this to be the largest deployment of consumer-facing iPads in the world, and for us, it’s just the beginning,” OTG chief executive Rick Blatstein said. “We have plans to roll out thousands of additional iPads at other airports around the United States and the world. Technology is an important complement to the customer service experience.”

Image used with permission by copyright holder

He added, “This is a unique deployment that has no precedent. We’re marrying culinary excellence at the airport with new media. In addition to the content we are already offering, we see this as a significant opportunity for broader deployment of digital content from movies to news to games.”

The move by OTG will be music to the ears of Apple, as more and more industries turn to its device to help improve services and efficiency.

[via OTG / Apple Insider]

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Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

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