Black Friday 2009: Three necessary apps for your mobile gameplan
If you鈥檙e raiding American retail temples like Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target in the early morning hours of Black Friday 2009, you鈥檒l probably be packing a thermos of hot coffee, a thick jacket and a shopping list.
Your best ally, though, is your iPhone, Blackberry or Droid. Here are the three mobile applications that could be shopping game-changers on Black Friday.
1. TGIBlackFriday
Price: Free.
Best use: Planning purposes.
All of the Black Friday deals in one convenient, searchable package. Go to your favorite retailer's Black Friday specials, browse items by category or search for a particular product with this handy app. When you鈥檝e found what you like, add it to your shopping list and then delete items as you conquer them.
Similar: DealNews鈥� Black Friday app.
2. Occipital RedLaser
Price: $1.99
Best Use: In-the-fray price comparison.
Want to know what other retailers are charging for a particular item? Unleash the RedLaser on the barcode of the item at hand (or, failing that, enter it manually) and let Occipital scan the Internet for the same product. When you don鈥檛 have time to shuffle through deal aggregator apps like DealNews and TGIBlackFriday, use this to get price information quickly.
Similar: If you don鈥檛 want to fork over the $1.99, the pic2shop app is a free but more pedestrian alternative. If you鈥檙e an Amazon devotee, download the Amazon.com app featuring a service that allows you to take a picture of a given item to be stored for later. The app even tries to figure out what item you鈥檝e photographed with decent results on straightforward products like books and yeoman鈥檚 work on generic items like computer monitors, often suggesting a comparable product.
3. Target
Price: Free
Best Use: Standing in line, evaluating your next move.
Most of the large retailers 鈥� Wal-Mart, Sears, Toys R Us, for example 鈥� all pack iPhone apps with a single cool feature. Wal-Mart鈥檚 app, for example, allows user to size up the final resting place for a potential television by allowing the user to take or import a picture of the space the screen will eventually fill. When the shopper alters the dimensions of a box imposed by the app on the photo, televisions that fit the space appear at the bottom of the screen.
Standing largely alone with several neat features is Target. The Target app allows you to lock in your local store, connect with gift registries as well as breaking down gifts into useful categories from toys by recipients鈥� age to an entire category devoted to Twilight. Being able to choose a local store helps check inventory levels, making sure you won鈥檛 be disappointed at the door. For those searching for the perfect gift, the app鈥檚 Gift Finder lets users search by age group and 鈥減ersonality,鈥� with categories like 鈥渃orporate diva鈥� and 鈥渕iss outdoorsy鈥� for women and 鈥済adget guru鈥� and 鈥渄oting grandpa鈥� for men.
See also:
Mobile shopping on Black Friday
On Black Friday sales 2009, can Amazon compete with Wal-Mart?
The story behind the leak of Wal-Mart's Black Friday deals
Are Black Friday鈥檚 years numbered?
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鈥� David Grant is a Monitor contributor. What are the best Black Friday deals on the market right now? Let us know on .
