Amazon’s iPhone application allows for shopping by photo

Online retailer Amazon has launched an iPhone application that will allow consumers to search for items by taking photographs using their phones.

The application, which will be available on the Apple Application Store from Thursday (December 11), allows customers to take a picture of a product and then send it to the retailer. Amazon will then try to match it with products in their inventory, along with suggestions of other items they might like.

Amazon says the software aims to simplify shopping on the iPhone and the iPod Touch, which both have wireless web connections.

Director of Amazon Mobile Sam Hall says: “We designed the Amazon applications to be a quick and easy way for iPhone and iPod Touch users to shop, browse, and buy with Amazon.”

The application also offers access to other retailers including US budget chain Target, and allows users to buy with “one click”, in the same way they do on its website.

It includes a new feature called Amazon Remembers, which helps users keep track of items they see while away from home, and will store them if they do not wish to shop on their mobile.

Hall says: “Customers can build visual lists of things they want to remember, buy or even learn more about.”

Amazon’s iPhone application builds on its TextBuyIt service, which lets customers with Amazon accounts find and buy products by sending a text message to the online retailer. Users only have to reply to the response in order to confirm the order.