A long forecasted technology trend that is finally starting to happen is point and click shopping. This is the use of a cell phone during shopping to discover information on products and then order and pay.
The New York Times article CellPhones Let Shoppers Point, Click and Purchase does a good job describing the current status of these technologies. It covers retailer and manufacturer plans to turn cellphones into information displays and ordering devices.
One big shift from earlier technology forecasts in this area is the substitution of camera phone applications for RFID chips. Barcode scanning by consumers via a camera phone is common in Japan. A user simply points his camera at a barcode and a software application does the reading. With cameras being close to ubiquitous on cellphones, this approach is cheaper and easier than using RFID chips.
A few years ago I had the opportunity to meet with Jeff Bezos at Amazon to discuss future technologies. He said he was looking forward to the day when a customer shopping in a traditional retail store could instantly compare prices with Amazon and buy from Amazon if it was cheaper. According to the article, that day is here:
Ben Aldern, 20, of Berkeley, Calif., went to Target recently to shop for headphones. “I was ready to spend whatever I needed,” he said, but on a hunch, he fired up RedLaser — and found the same model for less at Amazon, the online merchant.
RedlLaseris an iPhone barcode reader application.
Pricecheckah is better. It uses the same great redlaser barcode scanner, but gives you results from Amazon, eBay, walmart, overstock, buy.com as well as Google. It even let's you put in your own stores. And at only 99c.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=300264101&mt=8
Posted by: Aaron Goodmiller | March 01, 2010 at 08:34 AM
I agree with you ,
Pricecheckah is much better.
Posted by: Raleigh Press Release Service | March 03, 2010 at 07:49 PM
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Posted by: Greensboro Press Release Service | March 04, 2010 at 07:19 PM
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Posted by: Atlanta Press Release Service | March 08, 2010 at 07:00 PM