Concourse G at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport isn’t being converted into an Apple megastore, but travelers soon might be forgiven for concluding otherwise.
The concourse will have thousands of Apple’s iPads, as far as the eye can see.
In what is being called one of the most ambitious public deployments of such devices anywhere, the airport will offer a tethered tablet on a stand at virtually every restaurant seat, and at the bulk of the seats at gates and other waiting areas, for use by any traveler.
About 2,500 tablets are to be installed over the coming year as part of a $250 million concourse overhaul that also will include modernized decor and a revamped assortment of locales to eat and drink.
Visitors will be able to surf the Web on the iPads, check for Facebook updates and their flight status, charge their phones or laptops at the tablet stands and even check menus of airport restaurants and have their food orders delivered to them.
The airport isn’t the first to offer iPads in this manner. The company in charge of the installation, OTG Management, has been experimenting with the idea on a smaller scale at other U.S. airports, including New York’s LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International.
But OTG is accelerating these efforts in the coming months. It plans to flood additional parts of LaGuardia, along with portions of Canada’s Toronto Pearson International Airport, with anchored tablets for visitors to use as long as they like.
The two airports and the Twin Cities airport will have a total of more than 7,000 iPads, according to the Jamaica, N.Y.-based OTG.
The company is no stranger to Minnesota. It has been in discussions since early last year with the Metropolitan Airports Commission and Delta Air Lines — which has control over Concourse G through 2015 and uses OTG as a subcontractor — regarding major improvements to the facility.
The MAC has a keen interest in any upgrades because the concourse reverts to its control as of 2016, said John Greer, assistant director of concessions and business development.
The commission had no qualms about having the iPads installed after watching the OTG tablets in action at LaGuardia and JFK, Greer said.
“We saw how this was implemented and got excited,” he said.
OTG’s tablet mass deployment won’t be the only iPad-centric amenity to grace Concourse G next year. Delta and OTG also plan to introduce a “Media Bar” offering rental iPads with reading material, video content, music selections and iOS apps that travelers select. They can take the iPads on their flights and return them using an OTG-supplied shipping box with prepaid postage.
OTG operates most of the restaurants now in the concourse and will run the bulk of those being planned as part of the facility’s remodeling. This, along with the iPad deployment, will make OTG largely responsible for consumer satisfaction there.
Judging from the reaction of at least one traveler to the iPads already installed at LaGuardia, the company looks to be on the right track.
Scott Lorenz of Plymouth, Mich., said he was thunderstruck several weeks ago when he came upon the iPads, which were set up at high tables with bar-like seats at certain LaGuardia gates used by Delta.
“It stopped me in my tracks,” Lorenz said. “It really knocked me right out. What a great idea.”
It wasn’t just the tablets that impressed him. He gaped at a facility that had been “redeveloped and redecorated with new restaurants” in an overhaul that foreshadows what will take place at the Twin Cities airport.
“LaGuardia couldn’t clean their restrooms” in the past, Lorenz said, but now “you can get $50 steaks. It is not your typical airport food.”
At the Twin Cities airport, OTG-managed restaurants as of next summer will include the likes of Shoyu for Japanese fare, Lucy’s Asian Kitchen for rice and noodle dishes, Vero for artisanal pizzas, Mimosa for French food and a Twinburger joint conceived with advice from a Minnesota creator of the Jucy Lucy (one of a number of local food artists offering inspiration at the airport).
Every seat at every OTG eatery and drinking hole — about a dozen such establishments in all — will have an iPad, the company said. So will roughly 80 percent of the seating in waiting areas.
OTG is hardly the first to stage a mass deployment of tablets in public venues, like restaurants, though these tend to be on a smaller scale.
Golden Valley-based Buffalo Wild Wings has experimented with a similar idea at several of its outlets, including one in Oakdale, in a partnership with Idaho-based Hubworks Interactive.
That company has fitted iPads with rugged cases that are brought to the tables and incorporate credit-card swipers so customers can order food and easily pay for it.
Twin Cities-area Chili’s restaurants have taken a similar approach with swiper-equipped touch terminals at every table — though these are not Apple tablets but the handiwork of Texas-based tech firm Ziosk, which specializes in restaurant deployments using its custom-built equipment.
OTG said it scarcely considered deploying a touch-screen technology other than the iPad, with millions of ardent users who will be instantaneously comfortable with the airport-installed tablets.
“It’s very simple why we chose the iPad,” said OTG’s chief executive, Rick Blatstein. “Everyone loves it and knows how to use it.”
OTG has ambitious plans to deploy tens of thousands of iPads in U.S. airports in coming years, Blatstein said.
It also intends to increase the number of services available to travelers using the iPads. These enhancements might include the ability to watch feature films and TV shows, play video games and even order duty-free merchandise in a manner similar to placing food orders.
“You could order a neck pillow, and someone would run it right over,” Blatstein said. “The sky’s the limit.”
Julio Ojeda-Zapata writes about consumer technology. Read him: twincities.com/techtestdrive and yourtechweblog.com. Reach him at 651-228-5467. Follow him at ojezap.com/social.
