DealTime.com, the leading independent online comparison shopping service, unveiled today DealTime Mobile, its mobile phone Web service, which can be accessed by any Web-enabled phone at www.dealtime.com/mobile. Continuing to simplify online shopping for consumers, DealTime empowers Web-enabled mobile phone subscribers to comparison shop and buy from the Web using their mobile phone's built-in UP.Browser™ microbrowser from Phone.com.
"By bringing DealTime to Web-enabled phones, consumers can truly realize the promise of anytime, anywhere shopping-finding and purchasing the products and services they want, at the prices they are willing to pay without being tied to the desktop," said Dan Ciporin, president and CEO of DealTime. "DealTime is the only comparison shopping service to give consumers the ability to shop for and purchase items directly, via mobile phone, wherever they are, ultimately saving them time and money."
Comparison-shopping is ideally suited to the growing mobile commerce market, giving consumers instant access to valuable information. According to a new study conducted by Framingham, Mass.-based International Data Corp. (IDC), wireless subscribers with Internet access will outnumber wired Internet users by the end of 2002. By mid-2001, all new digital cellular and PCS handsets will support the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), leading to a dramatic increase in the number of people who will be able to access the Internet using wireless devices.
"We are pleased that an ever-growing number of shoppers with wireless phone subscriptions now have access to MobShop through DealTime's Mobile service," said Jim Rose, CEO and co-founder of MobShop, Inc.,a DealTime merchant. "We are excited about this opportunity and look forward to extending the power of group buying to the wireless world."
DealTime Mobile is a streamlined version of DealTime.com, designed especially for easy viewing by consumers on small wireless phone screens. DealTime Mobile provides consumers with convenient and easy access to the core of DealTime's service, enabling consumers to comparison shop for the best deals and purchase products online wherever they may be - in the store, on the beach or on the go.
For example, imagine a customer standing in a store about to purchase a DVD player. He or she logs onto DealTime via his or her wireless phone, and punches in a product search or the DVD's exact model number. DealTime searches for and returns a list of prices across a variety of merchants. The customer can then compare prices and features to decide if the product is worth buying at that particular store based on the other deals available online. If the customer prefers one of the online deals, he or she will have three easy options to buy-automatically call the merchant and order, email the deal to a home or office computer and order later via their PC, or buy the item immediately from their phone using their DealTime account.
"The key to bringing the promise of wireless Web shopping to fruition is the ability to find exactly what shoppers on-the-go are searching for, and delivering the details to a very small screen," continued Ciporin. "The mobile consumer has very little tolerance for inefficiencies and inaccurate search results. Thanks to DealTime's pinpointed searches, the best deals are seen in simple, concise text on a Web-enabled phone's LCD panel or Palm VII, saving time and eliminating hassles for mobile shoppers."
DealTime's unique Product Language Recognition (PLR) technology powers DealTime's search engine, which works to minimize errors in search results. It has the ability to provide all the information about a particular product no matter how individual merchants or manufacturers categorize the details. This ensures that consumers quickly access the right products, services, and deals. Granular searches with extremely targeted, concise results will be mandatory for wireless subscribers because they have very little tolerance for inaccuracies. As part of the DealTime Anytime strategy, DealTime Mobile adds to the current cadre of DealTime distribution channels - PCs, Palm VII and email.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on May 8, 2000.