CONSUMERS who have always wanted to compare prices of groceries across different supermarkets can soon do so conveniently, thanks to a free mobile-phone application.

To be launched in two weeks' time, the Price Pal app will let users scan the barcodes of groceries with a phone camera. Alternatively, users can key in the name of the products.

The app will then list the prices of the products from supermarkets like NTUC FairPrice, Sheng Siong, Giant and Cold Storage.

It can even list prices of a product across different brands.

Price Pal was developed by SingTel with its IT-services subsidiary, NCS. The telco said yesterday that the app covers tens of thousands of grocery products across hundreds of categories.

The groceries include condiments, canned food and beverages.

Raw meat and vegetables are not in the list but SingTel said they could be included later if there is demand.

Price Pal can also provide price information on books, including titles from Books Kinokuniya, Times and Popular, as well as petrol prices from Shell, Caltex, Exxon Mobil and Singapore Petroleum Company.

The app is available only to SingTel mobile-phone customers.

It runs only on the iPhone 3GS and phones running the Android operating system, versions 1.6 and above.

It can be downloaded from the apps stores of the respective phone companies, and also from SingTel's App Zone website.

But the app could be made available to non-SingTel customers and other phone-operating platforms, like Symbian, in the future, SingTel said.

The price information provided by the app is collated from public sources, surveys conducted by SingTel staff and tertiary students. They will be updated from time to time, the telco said, adding that it is in talks with retailers.

SingTel also launched two other free apps yesterday called Property Buddy and Go! Shopping.

They are already available for download and can be used by non-SingTel customers too.

Property Buddy lets users search for the sale and rental prices of condominiums, landed properties and Housing Board homes. Users can even point their phones' camera at a property to get the transacted prices of homes in that property.

Go! Shopping gives users access to maps and lists of shops in 48 malls, which include those in Orchard Road - such as 313@Somerset, Paragon and Ngee Ann City - as well as shopping centres near MRT stations, like VivoCity, Junction 8 and Tampines Mall.

The app can guide users to specific shops in a mall by using their phones' Global Positioning System. It pinpoints a user's location and shows him the fastest route to the store.

Mall and store-promotion details can also be listed.

Mr Allen Lew, SingTel's chief executive for Singapore, said the telco received co-funding from the Media Development Authority to develop the apps.

Advertisers will also pay Sing- Tel to list offers on these apps, he added.

Electronics engineer Christopher Koh, 33, said the Price Pal app would come in handy when he does his weekly grocery shopping with his wife.

"It can give me an idea of where to get goods like diapers for my kid, at the lowest cost," he said.