Maylin
Back in 2007, there was a much publicized patent application by Apple. It revealed Apple’s plans of allowing iPhone owners to place orders and confirm them, interacting with their local stores. They described a wireless system that would allow customers to place an order at a store using a wireless device such as a media player, a wireless personal digital assistant or a cell phone.
The system would, for example, allow customers to order a drink with the press of a button on their iPhone which would then notify them when their order was ready. The reports suggested that this may put Apple’s partnership with Starbucks in a new light.
A new patent application has made news today and when read in light of the above patent application, expands the concept to various varieties of local content including movie tickets, event tickets, concert tickets and general information like stores near you, music purchases and dining advice.
The local content may be customizable giving rise to the possibility of various innovative uses at its highest. Business content could be distributed via this service. On landing at a particular terminus for example, the airport could give you the details of the city you have landed in, schedules for the day, etc or as the patent elaborates ‘For example, if the merchant is a restaurant, the merchant may provide a menu to the personal media device and the user may place an order on his or her media device by selecting items on the menu.’
May 16, 2008
That is so cool! I would use that all the time if I had that capability. Especially if you are in a rush, getting a simple coffee at starbucks by ordering through your phone would be amazing. Everything seems to be getting even more simplier with the touch of a button nowadays.
May 16, 2008
err.. did i say ‘press of a button’
May 17, 2008
It’s amazing to see how much iPhone mania has spread. The capability of the iPhone is endless. And with the SDK out, there are Application for everything now.
Its great to see Apple taking initiative at root level, people with iPhones are gonna be very happy consumers now. Starbucks is almost everywhere these days.
But the User to Machine interaction is getting so easier that, people spend most of their time interacting with machines rather than real people….
May 18, 2008
This feature is so cool! Imagine you can get a coffee with just a press of a button. I wonder how it works. But I can never say the same thing on those Iphone because from what I have already known we can purchase some stuff online by the use of a mobile phone. I remember seeing this feature on a payment processor known as Epassporte.
May 20, 2008
I don’t know how useful this would be for me since I don’t drink a lot of coffee, but I can certainly see the appeal for people who do. I’d love it if I could order a bowl of soup or a salad made to order from one of my favorite restaurants and have it waiting for me when I got there. That would be a big convenience, since waiting in line is probably one of my biggest time wasters these days!
May 21, 2008
This is incredibly cool. Online ordering (for restaurants and such) made things one hundred times easier, and reduced mistakes in orders due to miscommunication. This is the same idea, but something you can do any time, anywhere. I think it’s a brilliant step. Apple has become extremely innovative, and although I’ve been loyal to Microsoft by habit (gasp) for all my life, I believe I’m starting to see the light.
May 21, 2008
For drinking a lot of coffee is required since I slept late at night just to do all my jobs. I think that this feature is really good but I don’t think that this feature will be available on our country right now because we can’t afford such new technology. We are one of those third world countries so it is very hard to find this kind of new technology around our country.
May 22, 2008
Eh, that’s a good point, Postman; I always forget that. I’m in Canada and while I’m sure it won’t take that long for it to come here, there’s always a delay. Blah, that’s so frustrating… I’m always reading U.S. news, get hyped, then the big letdown crushes me.
This just happened to me with the PayPal Debit Card, too. >:\
May 24, 2008
This is an interesting idea. I am glad this article was written. I have heard of phone services doing this kind of thing where you can find local restaurants in your area. But to be able to order from your phone is taking it to the next level. No doubt Apple is taking big initiatives, but I’m not sure exactly how successful this will be.