Forget letters to Santa: send mobile barcodes instead!

Barcode Hero has created what is, at the same time, one of the most brilliant and most dangerous mobile barcode services I have ever seen: letting your children send a wish-list to Santa by just scanning barcodes. I got a response from some Dads as well, and have added their suggestions.

What’s the story here?

Barcode Hero is another price comparison app. It does it’s job very well, but it does a job that is common to quite a few other applications out there: from independent apps like ShopSavvy and Pongr, to big corporations like Microsoft and Amazon.

They all share the same basic principles:

• You download their app, through which you can use your phone camera to scan a product barcode.
• The app then provides you with a list of other places that product can be bought, along with the prices it is available for at those locations. This allows you to make sure you’re getting the best deal from right there on the shop floor.
• In most cases, the app will also provide extras, like more information on the product, reviews, on-line ordering and directions to other places that sell it.

There are slightly different services and offerings from each price comparison company… but that’s not what’s important. What is important is the Holiday Wish List that Barcode Hero is now offering.

Holiday Wish List?

Barcode Hero wants to eliminate the loving family tradition of writing letters to Santa Clause – and replace with emailing him with a scanned list of products. Your kid can scan a product onto their wish list. It will pop on there, complete with reviews, prices and pictures. Once they’ve scanned as many pictures as they want, you “send the list to Santa” – which actually emails it to you, the parent.

What we think?

I asked a few Dads I know about this, and the response was fairly positive. Their combined response was this:

• It’s a good idea, because a lot of the time you’re not quite sure what your kid is actually asking for. They often don’t explain them very well, so it can be hard to tell between different types of nearly identical toys. Getting an actual product code from your child would really help.
• There’s a danger of your kid scanning the wrong code, or just scanning a million different bar codes. What this system needs is a great on-line interface to finalize the list. You could sit with your kid at the computer, and select which scanned items will appear on it or not.
• The final step should be that the list is compiled into a nicely formatted letter, which you could print out and actually “post” to Santa Claus – rather than just sending an email.
• A lot of Dads really enjoy sitting down with their kids to write a letter to Santa, and wouldn’t replace it for the world.