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Amazon has launched an app for iPhone that lets users either scan the barcode of a product in a store or take its picture in order to ompare the price with that offered online by Amazon and other online merchants. It gets even better – the app also lets a person type or say the product name to complete an online purchase using their account.
It’s not the app itself that is unique – those type of apps have been around for awhile – it’s that Amazon launched one. The timing of their launch is a shot across the bow of brick and mortar stores. IDC Retail Insights, a technology-focused consultancy, says a survey of 1,000 consumers carried out in September suggested that more than a third will use mobile devices as they shop this holiday season, including using them to compare prices both online and at nearby stores, and to check product availability. In the US, 28 percent of mobile phone subscribers now own smartphones, according to figures from Nielsen, the market research company.
OK – so what?
Associate Creative Director at bloomfield knoble
