OP3 makes mCommerce a reality to everyone

Posted Wednesday, June 8, 2005

 E-mail this page    Printer-friendly page

Experts have been talking about mCommerce for a long time, but the hurdles have been hard to climb. With OP3's ShotCode technology there's no more need for using the mobile's keyboard for "writing" long web addresses. You just start the ShotCode reader on your camera mobile phone, point the camera at the ShotCode, (which is a circular type of barcode) click once and you're instantly connected to the right Internet site. It doesn't become any easier than that.

"Since the late 90's the market has struggled with the question how to make mobile commerce a reality. OP3's technology, which many describe as almost magic, is taking away the key obstacle, bad usability", Dennis Hettema says. It's only your own imagination that sets the limits for what's "hiding" in a ShotCode. Maybe a scene from a new movie, a personal weblog, more information out of an ad, anything the owner of the ShotCode desires. For example; a Swedish company; SWEB AB is specialized in selling business cards with a ShotCode printed on it. The card, because of ShotCodes and SWEB's own technology, suddenly contains much more information than printable in text.

The ShotCode reader software, which is available in the webshop, is free of charge and can be downloaded on the cameraphone in many different ways. The software is small, only 18 kb to install. The Swedish/Dutch company is a veteran in the business, founded three years ago in Åmål, Sweden by Dennis Hettema. One of the foremost priorities for OP3 is to make as many mobile phone models compatible as possible. Before the end of this year Dennis Hettema's goal is to have at least 90 models compatible to the ShotCode software.

OP3 is currently negotiating with different operators to get the software pre-installed on their mobile phones. Dennis Hettema has an optimistic view for the future. He's sure that mobile commerce will become a strong competitor to eCommerce. "Today people are already buying six times as many mobile phones than laptops and PC's combined", he declares.