Monday, June 9th, 2008
eBay Mobile
Lots of news coming out of the Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference today. TechCrunch’s Erik Schonfeld teased a lot of new apps for the iPhone complete with a brief interview by Michael Arrington of eBay’s very own Alan Lewis speculating on the reasons behind Alan’s attendance - attendee or presenter?
Alan was indeed attending as a presenter. He and eBay Mobile product manager, Ken Sun, were fortunate enough to demo their brand-new application to Steve Jobs last week and he liked it so much he invited them to do the same earlier today during his keynote in San Francisco this morning. I managed to get on the phone with Ken before he took the stage:
“The iPhone has quickly become the #1 mobile device for accessing eBay and while the current Safari experience is great, we wanted to create the best mobile experience for our customers,” said Ken Sun. “5 weeks ago we decided to create this application. The ease of developing with the iPhone SDK helped us to quickly integrate with eBay’s web services.”
He also provided me with some screen shots so I could share with readers:
HOME: Immediate access to search and “My eBay at a glance” so buyers and sellers can stay on top of their auctions throughout the day. It is also personalized with the user’s MyWorld avatar:
My eBay: Buyers and sellers can view the items they’re tracking so they can easily find the ones they need to take action on:
Search Results: Search the entire inventory of auctions and fixed-price items available on eBay.com. A refine button will be available to allow buyers to zero-in on what they’re looking for by category, price or auction type:
The bad news? The eBay application won’t be available until the App Store launches later this Summer. The good news? It will be available for free when it does.
I plan on catching up with Ken this week to find out what it was like to demo for Steve Jobs and what’s involved in taking a concept from idea to reality in just 5 weeks.
Cheers,
RBH
Tagged: alan+lewis, apple, apps, devcon, ebay, ebay mobile, iphone, iphone sdk, ken+sun, my ebay, steve+jobs, wwdc08
JamesOn June 9, 2008 at 1:33 pm Said:
Richard-
When you meet with Ken would you mind asking him if eBay plans to bring existing services like TurboLister, Accounting Assistant (and pretty much everything except the SYI form) to the Mac? And would you enquire about the chronic problems users of the Safari browser have when surfing and searching on ebay.com?
Thanks
James
DagnyOn June 10, 2008 at 9:55 am Said:
I would love to have an iPhone but sadly it is not in the budget and I spend too much time on the internet as it is. :)
I hope eBay can get it up and running without to many bugs….hay, one can always hope…right? :)
Well Richard this is the ninth blog entry in a row that no one appears to be interested in and the “Feedback on Feedback” blog entry has over 700 responses now. Maybe you could throw us some more meat to chew on…perhaps answer all of the many questions about the turmoil eBay members are experiencing right now?
BrianOn June 10, 2008 at 7:56 pm Said:
Great news! Could you confirm that the application will work outside of the US on eBay’s other country sites? If so, I’m excited! If not … have non-US users been forgotten? (Hopefully not). Cheers, hurmeez
Doctor-DealsOn June 11, 2008 at 2:16 am Said:
@Richard
I have to agree with DAGNY, it has been over three weeks since you have hit on a topic that really engaged the “viewers”, if that is what people that read Blogs are called.
I am sure you will have lots to talk about next week with eBay Live.
Maybe you can break a good story by confirming that eBay will soon start collecting FVF’s on S/H.
That will generate some interest if you can get some details on exactly how that will work. Will FVF’s drop back to where they were since S/H will be included?
I am sure you can find someone inside eBay to give you a sneek peek.
Or you could break the story that sellers with high DSR’s will get FREE listings just like Buy.com does. Details on how that will work would really engage the community.
Please bring us the news we need to plan and operate our businesses with. Fluff is nice to fill in with, but there is REAL news you could be covering.
You are the “inside guy”, please bring us the news we need to hear.
Just a thought….
Doctor Deals
permacrisisOn June 11, 2008 at 5:46 am Said:
Do one on a minute-by-minute of your day. Starting with when you walk in the door. Do you have a dept, subordinates/interns/research assistants? What’s a late night like? Do they fly you to other ebay campuses, or just events.
You’ve been here awhile. Touch on the perception and anticipation of the job/offer vs how the position really is.
What is your take on how other employees in the company perceive you. Do the hallways ‘part’ for you or do you take the jostling like everybody else.
Have you ever played a prank on JD? Has anybody?
Tell about the day you first heard of this job. Did you go after it or did somebody get ahold of you about it? Were you seated in an office, or did someone come up behind you while you were eating a sandwich?
Don’t just be a mouthpiece- Write! Simply getting this job is a story in itself.
“It was a dark and stormy night” - Snoopy
LisaOn June 11, 2008 at 6:28 am Said:
That’s an awesome device, but my first thought is why? I feel like Ebay is dead to me. I’m still listing and selling, but I don’t believe for one minute I have a future with Ebay. It’s so confusing. They’re developing products like this but literally showing sellers the exit door. It’s a mystery. How is one to plan their selling strategy for the rest of the year, much less next year when Ebay is showing such instability. I’m looking into new careers, probably outside of the e-commerce world. I don’t trust Ebay. They’d really have to turn it all around for me to believe in them again. This new management team is nothing short of cut-throat. Who would want to deal with people like this? Money’s just not that important to me. Integrity and moral in a person is what I look to me. This company is exhibiting everything opposite of that.
Sorry for the downer post. But I wake everyday in a slump. Going to work at my computer is just not the same. I used to feel the sky was the limit. I could be as successful as I wanted with Ebay. Now, I’m just wondering what new surprises is Ebay going to cook up and announce today. Nothing good or positive comes out of San Jose anymore.
implogOn June 11, 2008 at 7:20 am Said:
@ Permacrisis
you wrote:
Don’t just be a mouthpiece- Write!
Maybe Richard IS writing.
Maybe we’ll be able to read what is being written but at a different time in a different place.
JessicaOn June 13, 2008 at 7:21 am Said:
Will this be available in the applications in the US only or in Canada, international? If only in the US, are there plans to launch internationally?
AbdrewOn July 12, 2008 at 11:39 am Said:
eBay Mobile is NOT available on the iTunes Application Store in New Zealand! Why not?
BrianOn July 13, 2008 at 6:22 pm Said:
Richard, any chance you could put some pressure on the Mobile Team to have the eBay iphone widget made available internationally? At the moment, it seems that only the US can download the eBay app onto their iphone. I understand that the eBay is in the Top 5 of Free apps in the US for the iphone, and I’m sure that demand translates to other countries like UK, Australia, etc. What do you think?
Alan LewisOn July 17, 2008 at 4:34 pm Said:
Abdrew (or is it Andrew?) and Brian,
We are working on getting eBay Mobile for the iPhone internationalized as soon as possible. We built the app in a matter of weeks, so we weren’t able to have it globally at launch, but it is our top priority.
-Alan
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