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."

Comments

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.

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)

All we need now..

[up4fun]

is standard barcodes and we could do price comparisons in the same way that shazam 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