Amazon’s iPhone bar code scanner takes impulse buying to a new level: Amazon is trying to kill everyone with their new app. Find something you like in an actual store? Scan the bar code, and it will order on Amazon and ship to you.
The latest version of Amazon Mobile, 1.2.8, contains a bar code scanner in its search screen. As with bar code scanners in other mobile apps, Amazon Mobile uses your iPhone’s camera to take in a product’s zebra-striped bar code. Amazon’s servers then find a match, and after you select the item, you can sign in to your account to purchase the product on the spot.
Fairly brutal, I think. I found it via this post, and a comment on that post is pretty true:
Wonder when people will realise that treating their local bookstore as a showroom for amazon means there won’t be any “showrooms” left… maybe they’ll miss us when we’re gone and amazon don’t have to keep their prices down because there’s no more competition?
While I agree with this, I also don’t think Amazon is actually doing anything wrong. A little slimy, maybe, but they’re well within their right on this.