Wal-Mart Offers First iPad App

SN STAFF

SAN BRUNO, Calif. — Wal-Mart Stores, Bentonville, Ark., has launched its first-ever iPad application as well as new updates for its iPhone app designed to give customers tools to plan their weekly shopping trips.

The iPad app allows customers to browse, search and purchase items online, and to browse the inventory of their local store. The iPhone application features new updates that include shopping lists with integrated access to manufacturers' coupons and support for QR code scanning. Shoppers can add items to a shopping list by speaking, typing or scanning bar codes. They can also access product details, including customer ratings and reviews, as well as local product availability and prices.

In select stores the app will display in-store aisle location of products. The two free applications are the first of several mobile products to be rolled out from the recently formed @WalmartLabs group here under Wal-Mart's Global eCommerce unit.

"Today, mobile allows us to have a similar personal relationship with our customers that Sam Walton had with his customers 50 years ago when he opened the first Wal-Mart store," said Gibu Thomas, Wal-Mart's senior vice president of mobile and digital, in a statement.