Nice article from the Tampa Tribune...
Cell Phone Software Aids Bargain Hunters
By VICTORIA LIM
Published: Mar 4, 2004
TAMPA - A Florida company is hoping that camera phones and bar codes soon become shoppers' favorite new tools for bargain hunting.
NeoMedia Technology Inc. has developed a software program that allows camera- phone toting shoppers to comparison hunt while in the aisles. The privately held company plans to begin selling the software program, called Paperclick, in Europe later this month and may roll it out in the United States later this year.
The first markets the company plans to tap: Cannes, France, and Hannover Germany. The software will be sold preloaded in new Nokia 3650 and 3660 digital camera phones, the company said.
NeoMedia founder and chairman Chas Fritz said the Fort Myers company hopes to roll out the products to American consumers this year.
``This will be the device you'll take with you,'' Fritz said. ``At the end of the day, you're going to walk around with this to shop, to stay connected, to get information.''
Here's how Paperclick works: Using a camera cell phone that has the software installed, consumers can take a picture of a Universal Product Code, or bar code, on a product. That launches the software, which connects the camera phone with a wireless Web connection. NeoMedia's Web server then retrieves information tied to the bar code. Within seconds, consumers can find out whether an item can be purchased cheaper elsewhere or whether the manufacturer offers a coupon.
Variety Of Uses
The company said the software also is designed to allow consumers to:
* Photograph a bar code on a food product, which then could provide nutritional information.
* Photograph a bar code on a DVD player, which then might display directions for connecting it to a television.
* Take a picture of a music CD's UPC and a clip of the music on the CD might be played.
* Snap a shot of a bar code on a designer handbag and its authenticity might be verified.
``Everything you see in the physical world can literally be a Web page,'' Fritz explains.
The company said Paperclick will also work with radio frequency identification tags, an emerging product identification technology that manufacturers are beginning to use to track products.
NeoMedia isn't the only company that has set its sights on grabbing a share of the market for the digital shopping tool. Several companies have introduced similar technology, including Pennsylvania-based Airclic and LScan, as well as New York-based Scanbuy.
NeoMedia said it is suing the three companies for patent infringement.
Analyst Questions Feasibility
Meanwhile, the company, which has raised about $20 million in venture capital financing, expects to generate its chief sales through companies that sign on to have their product bar codes activated through the software program.
Company executives declined to be specific about fees but said they think clients will be willing to pay about $1,000 for each bar code they activate through Paperclick.
Michael King, a technology analyst with the Gartner Group, is skeptical of widespread adoption.
``Why would a business pay for it if it'll level the competitive playing field from a price perspective?'' Gartner said. ``Research on the fly may reduce the amount of impulse buys.''
NeoMedia thinks price savvy consumers, already familiar with using advertisements, fliers, coupons, the Internet and recommendations to comparison shop, will embrace the technology.
Camille Branch-Turley, spokeswoman for Tampa- based grocery chain Kash n' Karry, said it may be too early for retailers to decide whether they will embrace technology such as Paperclick.
``The consumers' desire or interest in having that information available to them while they're shopping is probably going to play a large part in driving retailers' thoughts on whether or not to utilize that technology,'' Branch-Turley said.
`` I think the folks leading busier lives will see this technology as being helpful in some respects, and in other respects, a guide, but not change shopping patterns dramatically,'' she added.
Said King, ``I just can't see consumers rushing to the till to provide support for the application.''
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