Tuesday, May 25, 2004
In the continueing series on cameraphones as portable scanners, Peapod is testing UPC scanning from a cameraphone.
One of the reasons online grocery shopping hasn't taken off is the hassle of building custom shopping lists.
PeaPod.com is testing a system that will allow people with Bluetooth enabled camera phones to build their shopping lists as they use products by scanning the barcode. Take your box of Mac&Cheese out of the cabinet, scan the barcode with your phone, cook, and eat. The barcode info is then sent to your computer and added to your "used items" list for easier shopping list building. You can then easily build a shopping list that is more accurate to your food usage and needs.
Expect many, many, more ideas like this. In fact, expect a good 20-30 companies in the next year to be various iterations of the camera phone scanner idea. It will be at least two years before any of them get traction thanks to how slow the carriers work, but there's some gold in there somewhere.
One of the reasons online grocery shopping hasn't taken off is the hassle of building custom shopping lists.
PeaPod.com is testing a system that will allow people with Bluetooth enabled camera phones to build their shopping lists as they use products by scanning the barcode. Take your box of Mac&Cheese out of the cabinet, scan the barcode with your phone, cook, and eat. The barcode info is then sent to your computer and added to your "used items" list for easier shopping list building. You can then easily build a shopping list that is more accurate to your food usage and needs.
Expect many, many, more ideas like this. In fact, expect a good 20-30 companies in the next year to be various iterations of the camera phone scanner idea. It will be at least two years before any of them get traction thanks to how slow the carriers work, but there's some gold in there somewhere.
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
