Regular Ferrety readers will know that I’ve been banging on about using camera phone tech for price comparison shopping for a while now.

Well it’s arrived.

‘PaperClick for Camera Cell Phones(TM) can read ISBN (for International Standard Book Numbers) codes, which are on virtually every book published in more than 159 countries, and use that information to link users to information on Amazon.com’s Web site.’

More on PaperClick here.

My opinion? This kind of stuff is going to get so hot, so fast that it will spur the same kind of furore as the RIAA’s fight against file swappers, as high street retailers try to fight back against price hunting by consumers. I’m talking barcode wars (ie hiding or encrypting bar codes), prohibition of camera phones in stores, model disguise (ie same model, different product codes) – the whole 9 yards!

Watch this one run. Can anyone spell ‘perfect competition?’