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eBay Releases Two iPhone Apps, iPad App Coming On April 3

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Through the years, eBay has proven itself as a very viable e-commerce site providing consumers with fast and reliable platform for both selling and buying consumer goods. But that’s just eBay’s web interface.

Today, eBay is taking its selling business on mobile, specifically on the iPhone with the release of two new apps – eBay.com global marketplace and the new  eBayClassifieds.com site.  Both these iPhone apps allows you to take photos of an item that you want to sell, upload it to Ebay.com or EbayClassifieds and wait until someone notice and buys it.  A pretty simple and quick way of transacting sales online, with the help of the iPhone.

“The eBay Selling app makes it easy for sellers to bring even greater value and selection to eBay and offer more great deals for buyers. Whether selling or shopping, we’ve put the world’s largest online marketplace in the palm of your hand, and we’ve introduced a great new option for consumers who prefer to sell and buy in a trusted, family friendly local classifieds format,” said Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay Marketplaces.

True enough both the Ebay Selling App and Ebay Classifieds app lets you do the following:

For eBay Selling Ap – point, shoot and click to list an item from their iPhones in 60 seconds or less, research sales trends and price ranges on eBay and list similar items for sale, easily and clearly view the status of items for sale, share listings with Facebook and Twitter social networks and quickly link to other eBay and PayPal iPhone apps.

For eBay Classifieds App – free ad postings in less than a minute with up to eight photos, either from the iPhone’s photo library or its camera, fast and simple search by keyword, location, price range and other attributes and single-page ad view with reply, watch, and share features – all while on the go.

And before I forgot, if you ordered the iPad, you’d be among the first users who will enjoy the upcoming eBay app for the iPad.

Here’s a demo of the eBay Classifieds iPhone app:

eBay close to selling off Skype?

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skype-logoThe rumors surrounding Skype’s future have been rumbling for moths now, with eBay quite keen to shed the Internet communication software because (as everyone else could already see) it doesn’t sit particularly well with its core auction business.

The New York Times reports that eBay will today announce a deal to sell Skype to a group of private investors that may well include VC company Andreessen Horowitz, which is headed up by Netscape’s co-founder Marc Andreessen. Interestingly, Andreessen is on eBay’s board of directors. Conflict of interest, anyone? [Read more…]

eBay Motors gets local with classified ads for used cars

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eBay Motors has launched eBay Motors Local Classifieds for individual sellers. Designed to connect car buyers and sellers within a 100 mile radius of their local market, this new online classified listing option for eBay Motors is being offered free to sellers for a limited time.

“Our new format marries the renewed interest in used cars with the convenience of transacting locally,” said Rob Chesney, vice president, eBay Motors, Marketplaces. “We’re delighted to give our buyers and sellers yet another trusted way to connect on the eBay Motors marketplace.”

Through an initial promotional period ending July 15, 2009, sellers can list up to six vehicles for a seven day period with no insertion or successful listing fees.

eBay opens selling platform to embedded third party tools

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eBay Inc. has turned its subscription-based Selling Manager service into a beta platform that is now open to embedded third party tools. Selling Manager is already used by hundreds of thousands of online merchants to manage their businesses at my.ebay.com.

eBay Selling Manager beta platform is the successful result of a pilot launched in June 2008 at the eBay Developers Conference. Professional sellers, like any small business, require tools to help them manage their shipping, accounting, customer relationship management, market research, and inventory management activities on eBay. More than 87,000 third party developers have already built more than 13,000 live applications that consume eBay’s Web services. The Selling Manager beta makes it easier for eBay sellers to find and subscribe to many of these tools.

Developers interested in building applications on eBay.com are required to meet site standards for trusted buying and selling experiences. Once approved, their applications will be available to sellers that subscribe to eBay Selling Manager, and they can monetize their applications with subscription-based revenue. Developers can join the beta and begin developing their eBay Selling Manager applications.