Shopping on the iPhone

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The Apple iPhone is more than just a phone. It’s a mobile computing platform and an Internet gateway that allows its user to do things on the go with an ease that has historically been relegated to the desktop computer. We can use social media sites like Facebook, or participate in microblogging on Twitter; we can use it as a tool to find restaurants and read reviews, find directions to those restaurants, and get recommendations on what to order there. These are all commonly discussed capabilities of the device – but people often don’t think about shopping as a mobile activity.

The darling of the internet shopping crowd, Amazon, provides a free application in the App store for shopping on their site. It’s fast, full-featured, and dangerous – it supports one-click shopping if you’ve configured your account for it. You can search for items, just like the “normal” Amazon site. You can snoop through the customer reviews, getting a good idea of how the past purchasers feel about their buying decision. This is a great thing even if you’re in a local store making purchases – the reviews on Amazon give you a good feel for how people like the product. If that store is out of an item, you can look it up on Amazon and order it anyway. There’s even a very cool feature called “Amazon Remembers”. It allows you to snap a picture of a product, which it then ships back home to Amazon. Some time later, if it’s recognizable as a produce, you’ll get an email notification that it’s been identified. When you return to your iPhone’s Amazon App, you’ll find that product in the “remembers” category, where you can order it immediately if you so choose.

Another great shopping app is the Craig’s List application, called craigsphone. It’s also free in the App Store. You customize it for your local craigslist listings, and then suddenly, you’re on Craig’s List. The interface conforms nicely to the iPhone standards, and all the categories are there – although some are disabled by default ( ones that might display inappropriate imagery or text ). You can search for a used guitar, and email the seller about it. You can even upload photos from your iPhone, then post an item for sale using your iPhone. The app will allow you to bookmark items and return to them later, and see “Featured Items”. Some people believe the iPhone app is a better Craig’s List experience than their computer browser!

There are many ways to shop for music on the iPhone. You can buy music from the iTunes store, of course. But there are many more ways to find music on the iPhone. One example is the app “Shazam”. It’s a lifesaver for those times when you’re at the movie theater and you really want to know – and buy – the song that’s playing on the soundtrack, or during the credits; or when you’re walking around a store and you wonder, “What song is that?”. You bring up Shazam, hold your iphone so that it can “hear” the song, and touch “tag now”. An icon appears, a circle sweeps around it like a clock’s hands; it uploads some bit of that data to a central database, and a few seconds later, the song’s title, performer, and album cover appear, complete with “Buy on iTunes” link, “Buy CD on Amazon”, etc.

An App that’s similar in concept is called “Red Laser”; it allows you to photograph the bar code of an item. It then uploads the image of the barcode, and if it’s intelligible, it responds with exactly what the item is, and a “search Amazon” link. With the advent of the iPhone 3Gs and its significantly improved camera, this type of application should work even better.
Of course, when you purchase these Apps, you’re already shopping – and you can do it all on the iPhone itself, with the App Store. Thousands of applications are waiting for you to find them. This article has only touched on four excellent shopping application for the iPhone, just to get you started; there are probably hundreds more waiting for you to find them.