InPhonic to provide eBay users with wireless bidding service

By Bob Brewin

June 5, 2002 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - NEW YORK -- InPhonic Inc. introduced a new wireless service that will enable eBay Inc. users to keep up with the often fast-paced bidding process over their cellular phones by using two-way Short Message Service (SMS) technology, Web browser phones and eventually voice-to-data portals.
Though SMS is still in its infancy in the U.S., some 500 million of the 140 to 160 character text messages are transmitted each day globally, though many of these transmissions consist of teenagers using SMS to say hello. That's not the kind of business John Sculley, vice chairman of InPhonic and former CEO of both Apple Computer Inc. and PepsiCo Inc., wants to be in.
"We don't want to do cute things with SMS," Sculley said in an interview today in New York. "We want to solve billion-dollar problems." Washington-based InPhonic has developed patent-pending transactional technology for SMS that can be applied to many other markets, including the online travel industry, Sculley said.
InPhonic CEO David Steinberg added that "selling books" would be a good use of the transactional SMS system. He declined to say whether InPhonic has pitched its SMS service to Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc., which drastically trimmed back its in-house wireless development efforts at the end of the dot-com boom.


InPhonic Inc. introduced a new wireless service that will keep eBay Inc. users bidding.

Steinberg said the InPhonic system works on a number of devices, including cell phones using Wireless Application Protocol Web browsers. But the SMS version developed for eBay saves users from clicking through 17 screens to update a bid. EBay users who sign up for the $2.99-per-month InPhonic Wireless Rebidding service, need only use one SMS screen to update their bids, Steinberg said.
InPhonic is also developing a voice XML (VXML) interface for the eBay service, which Steinberg called "a long-term opportunity." The problem with the voice interface today, he added, is users have to pay more for the phone calls to update each bid by voice vs. the low flat rate for the data service. Brian Cowley, vice president for sponsorship and services at San Jose-based eBay, said that in tests, users liked the SMS version of the bidding service "because it's real simple to use."
Nextel Communications Inc. is the first major U.S. cellular carrier to sign an agreement with InPhonic to charge customers directly on their phone bill for the Wireless Rebidding service, Steinberg said. EBay bidders who are customers of the other major U.S. wireless carriers, such as AT&T Wireless, Cingular Wireless, Voicestream Wireless and Verizon Wireless,

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