September 19, 2005 – NEW premium carrier Eos Airlines’ is to sell top-of-the-range Bose noise-cancelling headphones to passengers via its recently ordered IMS Inflight handheld IFE systems.

Using the e-commerce facilities built into the handheld units, which include credit-card readers, passengers on the all-first-class airline will be able to order Bose QuietComfort headphones. At the end of the flight the transaction data will be downloaded automatically via IMS’ virtual private network, allowing the headphones to be shipped promptly.

“We believe this is the first handheld IFE merchandising transaction capability ever offered,” says Alan Pellegrini, CEO of California-based IMS. The IMS handhelds – the original PEA and the new P-Series - were designed with transaction capability in mind. As well as supporting Bose-style transactions on demand, the credit-card readers enable airlines to rent out the handhelds and to offer films and other premium content on a pay-per-view basis.

IMS Inflight plans to offer additional transaction-on-demand applications. “The key is our ability to handle secure transaction processing over a secure and fully automated network,” says Pellegrini. “Data management over secure networks is an IMS core competence. As well as making our e-commerce platform possible, it also means that we are the only handheld provider to qualify for early-window content from every major studio.”