eBay pushes new iPhone app to propel $500M in mobile sales

Posted Nov 24th 2009 2:10PM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: Apple Inc (AAPL), eBay (EBAY), iPhone

Last summer, eBay (EBAY) launched its iPhone app, which turned into an instant hit. If anything, it showed that mobile commerce was not a pipe dream as the downloads reached more than five million.

So, in anticipation of the Christmas shopping season, eBay has launched a new iPhone app. It's called "Deals."

Actually, this may be those consumers who are deal junkies. That is, the new app allows for personalization so you can get real-time alerts on new deals. Actually, if you find a deal you don't like, you can shake your iPhone and a new deal will pop up. And once you find a deal you like, it's easy to make a purchase using PayPal.

At the same time, eBay has also upgraded its original iPhone app (which is now version 1.5). Some of then new features include social networking, email sharing, SMS notifications and so on. Oh, there is also a revamped mobile site at m.ebay.com.

For the most part, these mobile offerings should juice things up for eBay. For the year, the company expects mobile sales to exceed $500 million. Already, there is one purchase made -- every two seconds -- using eBay mobile.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook.

Tags: AAPL, ebay, inthenews, iPhone