Modern mobile phones can do all kinds of things - including adding to the unemployment queues. When you install an app you're not just getting something that will make your life easier; you're contributing to the ultimate destruction of entire industries. Well, unless you're installing iFart, anyway.
There were two excellent examples this week. First, the car price guide Parker's launched a rather nifty iPhone app. Then, Nokia bragged about its Point and Find software, which can scan barcodes and automatically find the item on a price checking website. They're very different applications, but they could both have very serious implications.
Many industries depend on knowing more than you do. Car dealers know exactly how much your car is worth, and exactly how much the car they're trying to flog you is worth. You don't, and their job is to take advantage of that by paying below the odds for your car while getting you to pay over the odds for the new car.
Apps such as Parker's make that much more difficult: "A 2001 Saab 9-5 in average condition with 80,000 miles on the clock, you say? With metallic paint but not the AS2 stereo upgrade? My good man, with that price you're surely having a laugh!"
The more information you have, the less profit the dealer can make from you. The better informed the customers, the smaller the profit; the smaller the profit, the more cars the dealer needs to sell just to break even.
It's the same with other forms of retail. If you can scan the barcode on a flat-screen TV, a fridge, a Fimbles DVD or anything else you're thinking of buying, you can instantly discover where there's a better deal. It could be the shop next door, or a website. That's seriously bad news for high street shops, because the internet will undercut them almost every time.
It's not just shops, though. Estate agents should fear an app that enables you to point at a building, see whether the neighbours have planning applications or ASBOs, and discover the average selling price for every other house in the street - as well as showing other, nicer houses on the market.
Restaurateurs and hoteliers should worry about the apps that will show user reviews and scare off potential customers if their food or the beds aren't any good.
The only reason this hasn't happened already is that our net connections are at home, not in the high street, but of course smartphones are changing that.
The combination of cameraphones, apps and Augmented Reality is enormously exciting - unless you're a car dealer, or a shop owner, or a restaurateur, or a hotelier, or… well, pretty much any retail business.
Wholesale destruction of previously invulnerable businesses? There's an app for that.
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Your comments (5) Click to add a new comment
lovlid
November 17th 2009
5. @ ellscore
Having helped find cars for two family members through the scrappage scheme, and buying Parkers price guide regularly for many years, I can safely say your talking jiggly bits. And if you do a bit of research - try the BBC news site - you'll see that its been a big success.
As for pricing apps? they're a brilliant idea. I was in PC World looking at a printer, I asked if I could use one of their computers to find a review online, and was promptly refused. When I got home, I found it for a hundred pounds less than they wanted for it. Devious set of barskits.
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janeorganise
November 14th 2009
4. Competition is good. Let's hope this results in standards being improved. If the restaurateur is selling poor quality food, or the dealer making too much profit we deserve to know about it.
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mjhm
November 13th 2009
3. The world is changing very fast, and everyone is needing to take their turn adapting. (I had mine 7 months ago.) Don't blink!
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themadczech
November 12th 2009
2. The question is if the TV dealer can offer you something you can't get on the net. Arguably many have been swallowed by fighting only on price. But it is fair to say that most of us will make the trip to the shop to see the quality. The trick is converting this browsing to a purchase on the spot...
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ellscore
November 12th 2009
1. I think as a whole car dealers have made more money than they deserved to (for a long time) Even recently this scrappage scheme allowed them to put their prices up by £2000 so £2000 could be knocked. Waste of government money again!!! Which was pretty much pocketed by foreign manufacturers. Bring on the apps. Competition is good for everybody.
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