In line with previous rumors, Apple has just announced a new application called Passbook. The tagline of the app is “The simplest way to get all your passes in one place.”
Passbook will organize all of your gift cards, tickets and other passes for you, allowing you to pull them up and use them at a moments notice…
Your boarding passes, movie tickets, retail coupons, loyalty cards, and more are now all in one place. With Passbook, you can scan your iPhone or iPod touch to check in for a flight, get into a movie, and redeem a coupon. You can also see when your coupons expire, where your concert seats are, and the balance left on that all-important coffee bar card. Wake your iPhone or iPod touch, and passes appear on your Lock screen at the appropriate time and place — like when you reach the airport or walk into the store to redeem your gift card or coupon. And if your gate changes after you’ve checked in for your flight, Passbook will even alert you to make sure you’re not relaxing in the wrong terminal.
Going to a baseball game? Present your tickets at the gate, right from your iPhone. Have a $10 Starbucks Gift card? Let the cashier scan the app’s digital QR code, and Passbook will deduct the purchase cost right from the card’s balance.
We don’t have a whole lot of information about this app just yet, but it appears that it will support a number of tickets and passes from different organizations. Especially since Scott Forestall just announced that the app’s API will be available to third-party developers.