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First Look: Amazon.com app for iPhone/iPod touch

by Cory Bohon Dec 3rd 2008 at 3:00PM

Today, the online retailer Amazon.com launched its first iPhone/iPod touch application. Previously, Amazon offered a version of its site that was optimized for MobileSafari. Amazon has added some pretty nifty features in the iPhone application that could make shopping online a lot easier.

When you first launch the application, you are presented with your wish list, and the phrase "Get Yourself a Little Something." From this home tab, you can also see your signed-in username. When you tap the search tab, you are able to type in a search string just as you can on the Amazon.com homepage. Search results are featured in a descending list, ordered by relevance. You can see the categories for the search results by tapping the "By Category" button in the top-right.

Once you're on a product page, you are able to see the same information that you would see on the Amazon.com page, except compacted a little more. Tap the item name/price link, and you get a full product description. Tap the customer reviews section, and you can see all of the reviews. When you're ready to purchase, select "Buy Now," or "Add to Cart" at the bottom of the product page. The picture of the product will then "fall" into the shopping cart tab with a nice animation. You can also see a running count of all the items in your cart. If you decide you don't want the item, just tap the edit button and remove it. When you are ready to complete your purchase, select the "Checkout" button in the top-right corner of the cart tab.

Probably the coolest feature of Amazon's application is located in the "Remembers" tab. In this section, you can take a picture with your iPhone's camera and have it sent to Amazon. In a few minutes, you get a link to the Amazon product page for that item (or the item that resembles it most closely). Note that Mike Schramm's favorite iPhone app, Snaptell [iTunes link], has offered the ability to do the exact same thing for multiple shopping sites. The Amazon "Remembers" feature seems nice, and your results are saved on the Amazon site for later reference. In my tests, after taking the picture I received a link to the product page within 1-2 minutes. This definitely could come in handy if you're in a store and want to find out how much an item sells for on Amazon.

Amazon has really created an all-around great shopping experience for the iPhone and iPod touch. You can download this application from the iTunes App Store for free.

First Look: Amazon Mobile for iPhone



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Today, the online retailer Amazon.com launched its first iPhone/iPod touch application. Previously, Amazon offered a version of its site...
 

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Joe Pemberton

Don't be distracted by the "remember this" feature... The real reason Amazon has an app is for the App Store ranking it will receive...

Blogged here: http://idlemode.com/2008/12/04/the-mobile-web-vs-mobile-apps-an-amazon-case-study/

December 04 2008 at 5:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
TonyRockyHorror

seriously, forcing in that ad before the iTunes store link will work? that's shitty.

December 04 2008 at 10:09 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Galley

It now supports multiple wishlists, but it no longer displays CD tracklists.

December 04 2008 at 9:55 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Squelch

I think this will be quite useful. I buy a lot of stuff through Amazon, and every once in a while I see a book or something that one of my professors has, and I want to be able to buy it. Now I can just snap a picture of it, and then later when I have time I can put it in my cart and buy it.

When I'm at a store sometimes I will snap a picture of something and then look it up later so I can buy it online. This simply takes a step out of the process. Now instead of me having to go through my pictures when I hook my phone up to my computer, someone else does it for me, and then it'll be already in my cart. Brilliant!

December 04 2008 at 7:22 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ryan

I like the app thus far, it seems fairly well laid out, and provides much of the relevant information a shopping experience through the traditional desktop browser would. Looks like a winner to me.

Oh, and it's been pretty successful finding items for me through "Remembers".... including this very rare timepiece:
http://nerdhook.com/2008/12/04/oddest-item-amazon-remembers-for-me

December 04 2008 at 5:14 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Eric Scho

"you can take a picture with your iPhone's camera and have it sent to Amazon. In a few minutes, you get a link to the Amazon product page for that item (or the item that resembles it most closely)"

Astounding technology. But presumably not perfect...plus there's that wait. Why is this better than simply searching the UPC or product name?

December 03 2008 at 10:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andrew

Annoyingly: you have to retype your password when you go back to the Your Account section after some sort of session timeout period. That makes no sense. Amazon Remembers is pretty gimmicky, it'll be interesting if people end up using it beyond the "here's my coffee cup" stage.

There are small touches done right: swipe-to-delete an item from your cart (just like an email).

December 03 2008 at 9:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Andrew's comment
rrdmxjedah

Yea this is my only complaint also

December 03 2008 at 11:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tim

Nice idea but I wish they would allow scanning of bar/upc codes instead of this somewhat wonky photo search. A app called shop savvy exist on for the Android platform and it works pretty well and returns results in seconds.

December 03 2008 at 7:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Tim's comment
Anderson

Yes. The novelty of taking a picture of an item and determining what it is is cool but takes too long. Even with compression, uploading an image will always take more time than simply scanning a UPC and transmitting the code (The programmer of Delicious Library gives the iSight UPC scanning code out freely). Plus, its bound to be more accurate. They should focus on this method and use the image interpretation as a fall-back method for items with out UPC codes.

BTW, what's up with that Samsung/Ozzy Ozbourne ad hijacking my browser when I click to rate a comment. Even though the add has a close button, it blocks the entire page from view and the close button does not respond. I had to close my entire browser and re-navigate to this page. Needless to say, I didn't get a warm feeling about Samsung, let alone Ozzy, as a result of this cumbersome advertisement.

December 03 2008 at 9:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
gnarfle

It's not doing any image processing. It sends the picture to amazon, who puts it in a queue on their mechanical turk site. Then people look at it and try to find it. It looks like a two step process, where first it goes into a queue for $0.01 per image to say whether it can be found on amazon or not (this step seems horribly flawed, as all you have to do is randomly click one and flow through them). If the first step yeilds that it is something that can be found on amazon, then it goes to the next queue where for $0.10 someone tries to find it on amazon.

I signed up out of curiousity (I've made $1.80 so far!). It's a pretty flawed system since the first step seems to be irrelevant. I've seen some things rejected there that clearly could be found on amazon, and some things put through that really can't. The second step has no way to say 'uh, this person was stupid, this isn't on amazon' either.

But looking through the queue, right now it's mostly people trying it out and not actually shopping. Almost all of the pictures are of things handily nearby. Shoes on feet, keyboards, laptops, watches, etc. Oddly enough I find it kind of addictive to try and find a product on amazon from a photo, making $0.10 in the process...

December 03 2008 at 11:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andrew

Not available in Canada :(

December 03 2008 at 5:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bill Mac

Interesting that it tells you the App is notyet capable of digital downloads. Would be great for music, videos and e-books too. Anyone know if a Kindle book will work on the Stanza app?

December 03 2008 at 5:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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