2008-06-08 12:14:30 -
- The future of the mobile phone may lie in its use as a mobile shopping device, according to a discussion among global mobile executives at the SNS Future in Review (FiRe) technology conference, May 20-23.
Scanbuy Corp. announced at FiRe a new barcode system scheduled for U.S. release this summer which will allow users to wirelessly purchase and
ship products using their mobile device's pre-barcode-fitted camera. Chetan Sharma, President of Chetan Sharma Consulting, hosted the "Future of Wireless" panel, which included Gary Roshak, Vice President, Mobile Advertisers and Publishers, Yahoo!; Jonathan Bulkeley, CEO, Scanbuy; Hugh Bradlow, CTO, Telstra; and Rajeev Chand, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst, Wireless, Rutberg & Co.
"I go into a Best Buy and I use my camera phone and scan a Sony TV, and get information on it, and then can click 'Buy'.... and because I have an account there, I enter my user name, password, they have my credit card and billing information, shipping in-store, and it ships to me -- and in 3 clicks I just bought a 62" TV with my cellphone. That's going to happen in a year or two," predicted Bulkeley.
The technology has already been launched by Australian leader Telstra and is currently in place in Japan. Releases in the U.S. and Europe are next up on the agenda for mobile companies, whose experiments in Japan have flourished. "Japan has been very successful with it so far," Bulkeley added.
"We've been both predicting and evangelizing this use to carriers and phone makers for years. Now the question becomes how carriers and banks get together," said Mark Anderson, President and CEO of Strategic News Service, parent of the FiRe Conference.
The Strategic News Service Letter is the most accurate predictive newsletter in computing and communications. The Economist has named Future in Review as "the best technology conference in the world."
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Sam Leigh, 360-378-8628
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