FoodScanner barcode scanner app for iPhone - harbinger of further disruption in offline commerce

This is a quick ad-hoc video that I took while trying out the FoodScanner app for the iPhone. It's pretty cool, and automatically scans bar codes and UPC codes off of food items using the built in camera on the phone, then connects to the Internet and pulls down rich information about that item.

While this application is for calorie counting and food journaling, I think it represents a type of capability that is about to be very disruptive to offline commerce. Just a matter of time before Amazon and others add this to their mobile applications and let you pull down the best pricing in the world and reviews and order on the fly.

The risk is that this will relegate many merchants to a role of being a showcase where people look at and feel items but then actually purchase those items online. They have a couple of possible strategies that they could follow in response, which I will post about at http://hawkinson.cloudprofile.com - here http://bit.ly/QZ39M.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• e-commerce
• FoodScanner
• mobile commerce
• retail
• CloudProfile

[DaarkRedeemer]

I cant get mine to work.

[pman590]

Just look at the box!