The new service will allow smartphone, tablet and laptop users to surf the internet while browsing the aisles for their weekly shop at no cost.

via Mobile Today | Tesco to offer free Wi-Fi in stores.

I think this is only going to help Tesco in the long run. Provided the WiFi was of sufficient quality, this would certainly help me decide whether to go to Tesco, Sainsburys or Waitrose. As a man, I really don’t care where I buy products like, say, a 6-pack of Diet Coke). If there’s good parking, I’ll probably prioritise that store. If there’s super quality free WiFi? Yup. That helps my decision.

Often, mobile signal in stores is really, really bad. There’s one Tesco store near my parents’ place that seems to act like a faraday cage. Highly inconvenient when you’re trying to call to query a purchase.

Of course, I never call. Well, I rarely call. I’d sooner use BBM. Or Google+. Or email.

So bring on WiFi. Nice one Tesco.

I think I’m right in saying that Tesco is the second largest supermarket chain on the planet just before the Wal-Mart group of companies. In the UK alone, Tesco employs almost 300,000 people working across over 2,500 stores. It’s a veritable giant.

Beyond a quick foray into a rather featureless (yet highly popular) Clubcard app, the company has only recently got stuck into the mobile marketplace, leaving much of the initial innovation to market minnow, Ocado.

With Ocado recently reporting almost 10% of revenues coming from customers using their iPhone (and now Android) app, it was right that Tesco finally jumped aboard the mobile train.

You’ve been able to order food with the Tesco app for a good few months now, but this week saw the introduction of a rather different philosophy as defined in the graphic above. With the recent modification, you can now scan any grocery item with your iPhone and boom…. it will be automatically added to your Tesco Online shopping basket. You can — if you like — purchase it immediately. But I think most people will use it in a fire-and-forget manner, scanning stuff while they remember and coming back to their basket later via mobile or desktop.

This is the kind of innovation I want to see in the marketplace and I am delighted to see Tesco taking a clear lead.

Good work Tesco. Pick up the app from the iTunes App Store by searching ‘tesco groceries‘.

Now, if you’d like to see how the process works, here’s a helpful infographic (good thinking, Tesco).

And here’s a video of the scanning feature working:

Mobile Industry Review (“MIR”) is — as you might infer from the name — all about the mobile industry and whilst we do have a small consumer following, the site editorial is generally inaccessible for consumers apart from when we jump into reviews of, for example, the Orange Rio or the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini.

It’s certainly quite exciting when the consumers pick up on something and go nuts on the site, as they have done today. We’ve had over 5,000 consumers (I’m assuming they’re consumers!) hitting the site today to check out the details we published about superstore chain, Tesco, and their iPhone 4 offering.

We’ve never ever had any such traffic from the other things we’ve posted about Tesco Mobile so I wonder if the company has caught the zeitgeist and is about to become the people’s iPhone champion? Good luck to them. Their deals are certainly very appealing, especially the PAYG offer! Read all about it.

Here’s the tariff structure:

Pay As You Go is nice and simple. Plonk down 569 pounds and you’ll have unlimited data (1GB) for 12 months, unlimited WiFi and a brand new 32GB iPhone 4. Since it’s PAYG you need to obviously pay for your call and texts — but Tesco will triple your credit. So spent £10 and you get £30 worth of calls and texts. Basically, if you don’t want the arse of a 24 month contract, this is one of the cheapest ways of getting hold of a 32GB iPhone 4. Indeed, if you’re planning on using your iPhone as a secondary device (like I do — the Bold 9700 is my primary phone), then Tesco’s PAYG option really is a super choice.

Of course, you need to bear the £569 pain up front for the 32GB or £479 for the 16GB version.

Alternatively, you can get Tesco’s help with subsidy on a 12-month contract. I have to say I’m rather attracted by the £45/month 24-month unlimited minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited (1GB) data and unlimited fair-use WiFi. The 8GB iPhone 3GS is free on that price plan and you’ll only have to stump up £99 for the iPhone 4 32GB.

And if you’re into collecting clubcard points, do take a look at Tesco Mobile.

I wonder how many people will be walking into Tesco to do their weekly shop and find themselves walking out with a PAYG iPhone 4?

Just to be clear, PAYG won’t be offered by Tesco immediately so if you’re after an iPhone from Tesco, think contract at the moment. They’ll be offering that shortly and I’ll have more details soon about that date.

iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS will be available to Tesco customers from just £20 a month, the lowest monthly contract price in the UK market. Tesco Mobile will also offer the first ever 12 month iPhone contract in the UK. Tesco Mobile will be the first mobile network to offer iPhone 3GS 16GB for free with unlimited calls, texts, and browsing, on a 24 month contract, for £60 a month.*

Here’s the schedule…

All the details you need: http://www.tescomobileiphone.com/

The release concludes with this statement:

With 42 million shopping visitors a week into Tesco stores, and great value price plans on offer, the network expects consumer demand to be extremely high.

I wonder just how many impulse purchases Tesco will be able to generate…

According to 4th Screen Advertising, which supplies Tesco’s ads, ads on the site, including promos for Bee Movie, ITV and Nivea got a click-through rate to campaign mini sites of between three and seven percent. The trial also showed that the average age of a visitor to the WAP portal is 36, with a majority of female users.

4th screen also said that 69 percent of users would click on a relevant ad. 69 percent click-through sounds like an amazingly high figure: I can’t remember the last time I clicked on web advert. Are mobile users more susceptible to ads than their internet counterparts, or has the novelty just not worn off yet?