Source: venturebeat.com, 10 December 2009
Archive for the ‘New features’ Category
iBarcode reader app acts as real-time price search engine
December 11th, 2009 by Wolfram, No Comments »Quelle: mobilecommercedaily.com; 11th December 2009
iBarcode reader app acts as real-time price search engine
iBarcode in action
Apnoti.com has launched a new iPhone application called iBarcode and claims it is the first mobile price search engine with an integrated bar code scanner.
Consumers can scan product bar codes and the application searches for the best prices on the Internet. The application is $1.99 in the Apple App Store.
“The mobile market is becoming more and more important,” said Wolfram Gast, cofounder and chief marketing officer of Apnoti.com, Starnberg, Germany. “Based on our unique technology of querying prices in real-time at http://smart.apnoti.com it was the only next logical step to bring this technology on the mobile market.
“The bar code scanner technology simply facilitates and speeds up the process of finding products on your iPhone,” he said. “So in the end consumers will always be able to better judge the price in the store in order to make the right purchase decision.”
Apnoti.com is an Internet company that is based on a piece of technology that registers price fluctuations in real-time. The site features automatic email notification when the desired price is reached and a price trend model.
Smart shopping on a smartphone
The application recognizes bar codes such as UPC8, UPC12, EAN and ISBN. These bar codes are generally found on the packaging of cameras, audio and hi-fi devices, computers, furniture, books and DVDs.
Consumers can set their own individual marketplace and language settings, send SMS product searches and store and send price watchlists.
Mr. Gast said that some products may see price fluctuations of up to 70 percent at one Internet retailer.
After a consumer scans a product, the application generates product information and a real-time price comparison.
Consumers can also search for items by product name.
Clicking on a price result sends the consumer to the merchant’s site for purchase.
According to Apnoti.com, the target demographic for the application is 16-40-year-old urban consumers in Germany, the United States, France and Britain.
IBarcode is not alone in the bar code scanning marketplace.
ShopSavvy lets consumers scan the bar code of any item to determine its availability and price from both online and local retailers (see story).
Mr. Gast said that by using the iBarcode application, consumers can get great price transparency and help in making the best purchase decision.
“We believe that people are becoming more and more price conscious,” Mr. Gast said. “IBarcode will facilitate the process of comparing prices.”
New iPhone Application: iBARCODE is the world’s first mobile real-time price search engine
December 11th, 2009 by Wolfram, No Comments »
Press Release, 10 December 2009
Scan the barcode in the shop and find the best prices.
Starnberg, 10 December 2009 – Today sees the launch of the world’s first mobile price search engine with integrated barcode scanner, the new iBARCODE iPhone application – an innovative service that means you can save cash on the go. This technical innovation from apnoti.com GmbH, based in Starnberg near Munich, enables every iPhone user to scan product barcodes in a matter of seconds and find the best prices. From now on, smart, price-conscious online buyers can use iBARCODE to better evaluate shop prices and always make the right purchase decision.
“The days when we had to go from shop to shop comparing products to find the best price are now finally over! For example, if you want to check the electronics market again to see if an offer really is good value, the iPhone iBARCODE app is a simple way of doing this,” says founder and Managing Director Gerold Herrmann. “Behind the unique and complex technology is a simple yet impressive idea. In order to scan a barcode, all you have to do is hold the iPhone over the relevant code. The integrated camera photographs it fully automatically and finds the best offers on the Internet within a matter of seconds. These are located by the recently launched real-time price search engine smart.apnoti.com, which now already comprises more than 65 million product offerings from more than 10,000 online shops worldwide,” says Head of Marketing Wolfram Gast.
The mobile application recognises a broad range of barcodes (UPC8, UPC12, EAN and ISBN), which can be found on the packaging of cameras, audio and hi-fi devices, computers, furniture, books, DVDs and medicines for example. Practical operating elements complete this handy offering, such as individual marketplace and language settings, fast entry of product search requests as text and storing and sending of watchlists.
The iPhone iBARCODE app is available for download at the iTunes App Store under the Finance category and can be found by searching the term ‘iBARCODE’. Furthermore, you can find more information about the mobile application directly on iTunes App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=340184122&mt=8
Real-time pricing error alerts for consumers to pounce on
October 22nd, 2009 by Wolfram, No Comments »
Source: springwise.com; 21 October 2009
Real-time price search has arrived, and with it some unexpected bonus features for consumers. German site Apnoti claims to have the first search engine to index prices for the German, American and French markets in real time. Currently in beta launch, the engine crawls over 65 million items in more than 10,000 affiliated stores for each and every search request, presenting users with a comparison of products’ price trends over the past four weeks and current prices, accurate (in theory) to the past few seconds. Apnoti differentiates itself from other price comparison services which usually rely on daily updates by their operators, claiming that these services cannot cope with the price fluctuations that often occur throughout the day.
According to Apnoti’s creators, sudden price drops and fluctuations of up to 90%—usually due to retailer error—are a regular occurrence. To help their German users take advantage of these mistakes, Apnoti launched another purported web first: Preispanne.de (‘price breakdown’), a free email alert service for huge price drops. Users enter their email address and select which product categories they’d like to monitor. When a price drop of over 50% occurs, they will be immediately alerted by email so they can pounce on the super-bargain before the retailer has a chance to correct it. Web store Otto.de recently learned this to its cost, when they received 6,534 orders for a EUR 2,000 MacBook mistakenly reduced to EUR 49.95.
Ethics aside, the services offered by Preispanne and Apnoti meet the demands of two powerful consumer trends: transparency and real-time everything. Online retailers will have to stay on their toes if they’re to stay in the game! Meanwhile, opportunities abound for entrepreneurs who can make the most of real-time transparency. How about a cheeky webstore off the back of Preispanne’s alerts?
Website: www.preispanne.de
Contact: www.apnoti.com/support
Spotted by: Susanna Haynie
New -smart shopping features- released successfully!
May 12th, 2009 by Wolfram, No Comments »
Dear apnoti.com members,
I am happy to introduce you the next generation of apnoti.com. Only a few days have past since our last update and yet again our strong development team has just released the next cool shopping features.
So, what’s new?
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Browse Amazon products on-site: From now on you also can find, track and buy Amazon products directly on apnoti.com. Simply enter the product you are looking for into the search box on our start page and find the products within seconds. Now, choose your item and simply click the buttom “add to my watch list”. Then create a price notification rule or simply enter a target price which you would be willing to pay for. With immediate effect apnoti.com starts monitoring the online-shopping market in real time and will be notifying you as soon as the price drops.
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New watch list features: Create your own watch list and manage your products (add and delete products, create and manage price notification rules, learn from price history graphs and price-trend-models, run over your watch list using our quick product snapshot function, sort your items by name, old price, current price, Price Changes, Shop, Added on etc.
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Price History Graph: Review price history in combination with our price-trend-model to make more informed purchasing decisions – Buying at the right time at lowest possible price!
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Market Place: Simply choose your Amazon market place (US, UK, Germany, Japan, France)
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Price Notification: Get email and/ or RSS price drop alerts in real time for any product you are looking for.
Please see the slideshow below to discover all new smart shopping features.
A virtual tour of our smart shopping toolbar – Simplicty to the max!
April 30th, 2009 by Wolfram, No Comments »
Simple. Efficient. Fun.
Shop as you go and benefit from our smart shopping toolbar. It only takes seconds to find and track your Amazon products. Saving money hasn’t been easier ever before.
Quick Guideline:
1. Download apnoti.com Toolbar
2. Simply find your items by using the product search box in your toolbar
3. Find the Amazon product you are looking for
4. Simply click “Watch product”
5. Select the characteristics of your item (Size, color,…)
6. Add the item to your watch list
7. Optional: Review the current price history graph and give the product price some time to drop
8. Receive an automatic price notification e-mail alerting you when the price has dropped
Please see the virtual tour (Example for our US community):
Please see the virtual tour (Example for our German community):
A virtual tour on how to add products to your watch list (on-site without using our smart shopping toolbar)
April 30th, 2009 by Wolfram, 2 Comments »It only takes seconds to add your products to your watch list in order to discover random price fluctuations for your item.
1. Log In at apnoti.com
2. Click “My Watchlist”
3. Click “Add new product”
4. Copy Amazon product URL at e.g. amazon.com
5. Paste your Amazon product URL into the apnoti.com search box
6. Select the characteristics of your item (Size, color,…)
7. Create your individual price notification rule
8. Review the current price history graph and give the price some time to drop
9. Receive an automatic price notification e-mail alerting you when the price has dropped
Please see the virtual tour:
Welcome Germany – Welcome Smart Shoppers
April 30th, 2009 by Wolfram, No Comments »
apnoti.com successfully entered the German market
We warmly welcome all German people who are addicted to smarter shopping und would like to introduce you our new URL www.apnoti.de – specifically aligned to the German speaking community.
From now on, we are not anymore solely American, British, Japanese, French or German. apnoti.com is from now on an international service for all the smart shoppers worldwide who love buying products at lowest possible prices.
Please see a global shopping passion in pictures:
Next Version of our ‘Price History Detail Page’ with extra pricing information is under way
April 23rd, 2009 by Wolfram, No Comments »
Dear Smart Shoppers,
The next release of our ‘price history detail page’ we will be providing you with extra statistical price data. In specific you will be able not only to access the last, lowest, highest and average price but moreover you will be able to see the exact date of the prices changes having occurred.
Please see yourself how the next release will look like:
Simplicity to the max – Shop as you go by simply benefiting of apnoti.com’s smart shopping toolbar.
April 22nd, 2009 by Wolfram, No Comments »
You would like to discover rock bottom prices for any product you are interested in? You want to benefit from random price chances happing all the time? You want to receive price alerts for the products you want to buy at lowest possible prices only? So, certainly it’s time to check out our smart shopping toolbar right away and you will never miss any price reductions anymore.
How? Simply install our free shopping toolbar. Search, find and track your product. Set your target price and receive an email as soon as the price has dropped.
You are not sure if your product has already reached the rock bottom price? Well, now it’s time to create a maximum price transparency. How? Simply click the price history icon and learn from the price changes we have monitored for your item in the long run. Moreover, you may see our trend model providing you with a first rough indication where the current price may head for.
So please watch out dear Smart Shoppers, shortly we will be alerting you as soon as your favored Amazon item has lowered the price such that the offer is too good to pass up!
Please take a minute and see the two screenshots below to understand the simplicity and effectiveness of our smart shopping toolbar. << Download Toolbar >>
