Amazon released its new iPhone app through Apple’s App Store,
allowing users to take photos of certain products, send them to the online
retailer’s Web site and wait for it to match them with the items found in its
inventory.
The software was designed to significantly simplify the
shopping process on the iPhone and on the iPod Touch and even though it also
provides access to other pages such as Macy’s and Target, its main features
were developed for Amazon.
"We designed the Amazon app to be a quick and easy way
for iPhone and iPod Touch users to shop, browse, and buy with Amazon.com,"
Sam Hall, director of Amazon Mobile, said in a statement. "Customers can
build visual lists of things they want to remember, buy, or even learn more
about," he added.
The app also features a service called Amazon Remembers
which offers users details about the items visited while away from home. The
feature attempts to match the photographed products with the items stored in
Amazon's inventory. When users receive the search’s results, they have the
option to purchase the identified items immediately or store them for later using
their Amazon accounts.
"If the item you want to remember is a product, Amazon
Remembers will even try to find a product similar to your photo for sale on the
Web," explains Amazon’s presentation. "If we do, we'll send you an
e-mail alert and post the result along with the photo."
The app looks and works much like the actual Web site,
providing information on whether an item seen in a store is cheaper online and
also listing the items offered by Amazon
and its third-party retailers. Wish lists, existing shopping carts, order
history, and other features are also available through the app.
Amazon is thinking big, setting up an easy access to all its
services. The company introduced in April a mobile service called TextBuyIt,
allowing the customers with Amazon accounts to find and buy products by sending
a text message to its online retail team. Users just have to reply to Amazon’s
response and confirm their order, and the purchase process is complete. In
addition to that, in September, Amazon announced its plans to preload a version
of its Amazon MP3 store on the T-Mobile G1 Android phone from Google and also,
a few months back, Amazon reached an agreement with TiVo allowing TV viewers to
purchase Amazon items with a simple click of their remote.
The strategy of taking its services to mobile devices is
extremely good for Amazon, as people nowadays are always on the go, and the
iPhone for one, with its large touchscreen, ensures a very good solution for
certain moments when a laptop or a PC is unavailable. Also it represents a
great and useful way of spending the time when riding the train or waiting in
line for something. The company should consider expanding the service for other
mobile devices, as smartphone market exploded in the past few months with new
releases from almost every important phone maker.
