Windows Phone Thoughts: Handhelds Help Keep Tobacco Auctions Fair

Here's a story about how handheld computers (presumably iPAQs) are being used right here in my backyard (North Carolina) to help farmers taking their tobacco crops to auction.

"The traditional chants of the tobacco auctioneer will be silent when flue-cured tobacco markets open this week, replaced by the soft clicks of handheld computers. A farmers' cooperative has provided the computers to buyers this year after farmers won a $200 million settlement against the tobacco industry. They alleged in a lawsuit that the industry had violated antitrust laws by bid-rigging...The computers count downward through prices, starting with the suggested one, dropping about a cent a second until someone buys the tobacco. Under the auctioneer system, the price started low and was worked upward by the cajoling of the auctioneer."

I think it's interesting how the handhelds are being used to help level the playing field during the sales of the farmers' goods. It's not a terribly earth-shattering way of using WiFi, but it's a great example of how handheld and wireless devices are starting to deliver true benefit beyond the previous hype.