Amazon Japan Offers Barcode Purchases via Camera Phone

Zode writes "Jesse James Garrett reports that Amazon Mobile Japan customers can purchase a item with their camera phones. "Snap a photo of a product bar code using your cell phone, and Amazon Japan will give you a price check," according to Garrett, relaying from this article in Ketai Watch (Wireless Watch). Here's the English translation from Babelfish."

Re:Here's a wacky idea:

[ucdoughboy]

would you like to be the one who does that?

What about the bookstores?

[lastninja]

How long until bookstores forbid the use of camera phones? I think many bookstore owners would be less than pleased if people only entered their store to be able to buy books from some other place.

All we need now..

[up4fun]

is standard barcodes and we could do price comparisons in the same way that shazam [shazam.com] tags recorded music.

Imagine sending a picture of a barcode to ebay to see if there's an auction for that item running.

This was bound to happen

[novalogic]

Well, this seems like a neat system, however, I hardly ever use Amazon as a price referance, I tend to look at ebay when I buy things. If it's retail, then it's retail. It's the aftermarket price that I worry about... Unless www.pricewatch.com can come up with a system like this, that woud be snazzy

Not a wacky idea. A stupid idea.

[Lord Kano]

First, one of the benefits of bar codes is that you don't have to put individual price tags on items anymore.

Second, if you had to pay someone to manage all of those price tags, you'd have to raise your prices thereby making amazon an even more attractive alternative and losing even more business in the proces.

Third, did you even think about what you were suggesting before you did it?

LK

Re:QueCat

[metlin]

CueCat was entirely different.

They were trying to do target advertising where you could scan a paper catalog and they would take you to a propreitery website with the information.

This meant that you had to do it from home, and you knew _their_ prices for the catalogs.

(they also had something where you could connect to the TV, if am not mistaken)

Either way, their model failed because they were giving away a piece of hardware away for free.

Re:Yah shops are going to love that

[Raindeer]

Your argument is correct for the most part. I'm willing to bet some are going to hate it. However a smart salesperson can also use it to his/her advantage. Point the buyer at the fact that the price difference is not large, that their are benefits in buying in a shop, because of service and then use a recommendation for an extra as a way to sell an item on top of the deal. If there is a steep price difference then try to give the buyer a package deal with a discount, which still leaves the seller with a nice margin.

Research in the Netherlands has shown most Dutch people search online for product information, but buy offline if the price difference is not too high, or they want instant gratification etc etc.

Re:Available in America...

[aussie_a]

You have WAY too much time on your hands.

Re:Keitai doesn't mean wireless

[Anonymous Coward]

who the hell cares?

Re:Here's a way around that one...

[CProgrammer98]

ummm just scan it right there on the bookshelf, no purchase/store exit/return hoop jumping required...

Re:What about the bookstores?

[Bilestoad]

Yes but not everyone agrees with such communist price fixing. Capitalism - in other words free competition - is widely accepted, outside "Old Europe" of course, to be best for all.

RFID Around the corner

[ntxb229]

I'm not sure this will catch on or that I'd want it to with RFID right around the corner. How long before RFID replaces every barcode on everything? Can't be much more than 5 years. This is a very cool thing though, especially the idea of being able to look up reviews for an item you're looking at in store.

Re:Purchase from ADs ?

[Eric Giguere]

must be really behind with phones

Absolutely. The North American market is very different. Competing technologies (CDMA, TDMA, GSM, iDEN) mean there is less choice in terms of handsets, plus they're locked for the most part to the carrier that sells them. Costs are often more than landlines. You pay to make AND receive calls. Coverage can be spotty due to geographic extent. Analog coverage is still a factor. Lots of different things.

Eric

Re:What about the bookstores?

[Captain_Frisk]

I'm not sure, but I had the distinct impression that the loud noise was not to tip off shoppers, but to tip off ladies that you might be using your camera phone to take rude pictures of. (In the locker room, or up some poor girls skirt)