NeoMedia Technologies, Inc (NEOM)

[henke]

CEO Naspers on barcodes :

In Poland there was quite an exciting development the last quarter, we've developed, not unique in the world but it's fairly early stuff, we've developed a programme on the cell phone which allows you to take a picture of a barcode and the not only does your phone identify the product but it then tells you how the price compares to other retail merchants in the vicinity. To give you an example, you're looking, let's say we're talking sneakers, right, you're looking for a pair of Adidas sneakers. Now, you could simply walk up to a store in Poland today and take a picture of the barcode attached to this box of shoes, it then identifies that this is the, not only the brand but also the particular variety and the price. You then see on your phone that this is not the cheapest price that I can get in Poznan in Poland today, in fact there's another store five blocks away, which offers this cheaper. This is immensely exciting because it allows the consumer in the store to start comparing it and it's had, interestingly, a short term effect already when some stores started obscuring the barcode to prevent you comparing their prices.

http://moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page299364?oid=518938&sn=2009+Detail&pid=287226