I have always feared that the much-hyped phenomenon of location-based services was destined to join a long line of technologies that never quite lived up to their hype. Of course I always hoped to be proved wrong but when TechCrunch ran a post last year inviting readers to send in their ideas for location-based services, a detailed review of the submitted ideas only served to underline my fears. In my opinion not one of the ideas had any serious substance to it – not any of the winners and not even my submission which got an honorary mention in the results.

Now I’d like to say that I have come up with a great idea for a killer location-based application but sadly I can’t – all I have is yet another potentially useful but not quite killer idea.

My idea is for a mobile (iPhone / Android) app that enables its users to help each other track prices of products in real-life shops, i.e. as opposed to online. It would work as follows:

1. User A goes into a store and finds a product that she likes. She however thinks its price will come down soon – perhaps in the sale. She therefore bookmarks the item using our app, optionally taking a photo of it and adding it to the bookmark. She also tags the bookmark and names it. Perhaps, User A can just scan the tag on the item and gets the name and description that way.
2. Two weeks later, User B visits the same store that User A went to. The application recognises this based on location and alerts User B that a fellow user has asked for an item in that store needs to be price-tracked. I know this assumes that User B has GPS turned on, which could be an issue.
3. User B locates the item and enters the current price.
4. User A is notified of the current price and if it is favourable she may return to the store to buy the item.

Of course the above begs the question as to what the incentive is for User B to help User A in this way. If the store were somehow involved in the process, then the store could reward User B in some way. If the store were involved however, you would have to ask why they wouldn’t just notify User A directly. I don’t have all the answers I’m afraid. This one is just a seed of an idea – perhaps someone else can pick up from where I’m leaving off.

As for how the app would realise revenue, that’s easy – User A’s interest in and intention to buy a particular product is registered and therefore the app can target ads to User A. As always, the problem with an ads only revenue model such as this is that the app would require serious traffic in order to make significant revenue.