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"Pull" Barcode Scanning Could Be Android's Killer App

Posted by timothy on from the be-a-frugal-gourmet dept.

Seor Jojoba writes "The release of T-Mobile's G1 Smartphone is shifting focus away from push-based barcode scanning, where embedded URLs send you to locations of a vendor's choosing. There is now more interest in pull-scanning, where product information is retrieved from user-specified sources. It may be that QR-Codes and other 2D barcodes will have their thunder stolen by 1970s-era linear barcodes. On the iPhone, scanning a 1D barcode is slow and unreliable. But the G1's improved optics and Android's improved access to image scans has made 1D scanning quick and useful, opening the gateway for killer apps that help people make spending decisions."

6 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. Freedom is the killer app by QuantumG · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let's just hope Google (and her telco partners) don't fuck it up.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
    1. Re:Freedom is the killer app by ijakings · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If a store trys to stop me whipping a camera out to compare prices ill just not shop there. If they dont stop me theres just a possibility I may not shop there. If they try to stop me using my own device they can fuck right off, even if they are the cheapest. ill just go to the next cheapest etc.

      Pretty drunk so please dont mod me harshley for this mini rant

    2. Re:Freedom is the killer app by tehcyder · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Besides which, who cares about this bar code scanning crap?

      Maybe people who are reading a story about bar code scanning?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  2. iPhone killer? Really? YES! by lancejjj · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is spot-on. Yes, many years ago there was an attempt to invest heavily in barcode readers - the Cuecat, in particular, was a well-funded attempt to bring barcodes to the masses. But due to a major error in their business model - a grave error - the 'cat lived an extremely short life.

    Jump ahead to 2008. People are buying fancy telephones, and there are barcodes everywhere. Google is in a unique position to read and process these barcodes on the fly - using a well-connected application living on a mobile phone. Next thing you know, you'll be able to go to the store, pick up a six pack of Bud, and scan in that barcode. THEN you can find a cheaper vendor - maybe down the street. YOU WIN due to CHEAPER BEER.

    And we know that the world, with its flailing economy, will certainly needs cheaper beer. The cuecat was just ahead of its time.

  3. Re:smells like a polecat by Seor+Jojoba · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, this time, you will not have to carry around a plastic toy cat with you and look like a damn fool. That could make all the difference, you know.

  4. Killer App? by whisper_jeff · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Are we seriously considering a bar code scanner a "kiler app"? To me, a killer app is one which makes you absolutely want it, even if it means making a different hardware decision. You know, like how Halo is a killer app for XBox. A barcode scanner might be neat or even nifty and, to some rare individuals, it might be an absolutely killer app, but for the majority of people I see it being nothing more than a novelty app - something that's cool to have and you use from time to time but, most of the time, you forget you even have it.

    Then again, maybe the poster is using "killer app" in a different way than I would...