I have a great idea for anyone that runs across this post looking for a new app to create.  There are a couple different barcode scanners in the App Store, but most of them are for price comparisons.  This idea is different.

Imagine you are a retailer and you already have an inventory of items.  It would be nice to have an app that ran from 1 or even several iPhones or iPod touch 4g that would be able to track your inventory.

Thus you could walk up and down the aisles of your store, set your iPhone to “Inventory Management” and scan all your products.  This would allow you to keep track of your inventory.

It would also be nice to have the capability to set your iPhone to “Purchase” and when a customer comes in, you could scan all their items and then using a program called “Square Up” (www.squareup.com) you could check your customer out and swipe their card right on your phone.  Thus, further managing your inventory.

What about if you have a product that doesn’t have a barcode (i.e. produce, crafts, etc.).  Then you would have an option to set your phone to “Create” be able to take a picture of the item, and then print a barcode to a wi-fi printer nearby.  Thus, when a customer wants to purchase that item, it will have a barcode.

This idea was originally thought of because I love the prices of books in Goodwill stores, but I can’t stand sifting through all of them to find what I want.  Thus if you had this program, you could easily manage all the book inventory within the stores.  This idea would also give Goodwill the ability to track all their inventory.  Anyway, perhaps after my first million I’ll develop this and make my second million.  =)

PS – if this already exists, please let me know because I’ve spent hours on Google trying to find something like this and couldn’t.