Method And Apparatus For Collecting Data For An Item

Abstract

A sale of a product or service may trigger a third party, such as a payment provider, to arrange for the collection of individual post-sale market data from the consumer. Alternatively, such post-sale market data may be directly provided by smart devices and the like. Dependent upon the type of product or service involved, a schedule for continuously submitting post-sale market data for the product or service may be provided and the consumer may be encouraged to submit post-sale market data in accordance therewith through a variety of incentives. The received, individual, post-sale market data may be aggregated by one or more sources to determine aggregate post-sale market data for the product or service. The submitted individual data and/or the determined aggregate post-sale market data may then be provided to consumers in order to assist them in making purchasing decisions.

1 . (canceled) 
     
     
         2 . A method, comprising:
 receiving, via at least one computer, user-specific information from a user device associated with a particular consumer, via a wide area network;   receiving, via the at least one computer, market data from other consumers via the wide area network, the market data including at least passively-collected operational data corresponding to an item; and   generating, via the at least one computer, a recommendation for the particular consumer based on the market data and the user-specific information; and   using the at least one computer to transmit the recommendation to the user device.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising querying at least one of the other consumers for authorization to share the market data collected from the respective at least one of the other consumers, and generating the recommendation only based on the market data received from one or more of the other consumers providing such authorization. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising provisioning an asset management service to the other consumers, wherein the market data relates to a media file, and wherein the receiving the market data includes receiving the market data representing the media file from the asset management service. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the receiving the market data representing the media file is unsolicited and wherein the market data received from the other consumers includes usage data representing playing of the media file. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising providing a service to create a profile representing the particular consumer and profiles representing respective ones of the other consumers, and wherein the generating the recommendation includes using the at least one computer to match respective ones of the other consumers having a similar profile to the profile representing the particular consumer, to identify a new item to be considered by the particular user based on preferences of the respective ones of the other consumers having a similar profile, and to generate the recommendation to include recommendation of the identified new item. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the using the at least one computer to identify the new product includes categorizing items of the other consumers, matching at least one represented category of items with the particular user, and identifying the new item dependent on the at least one represented category. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the generating the recommendation includes providing the market data from one of the other consumers on an individualized basis to the user device. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the providing the market data from one of the other consumers to the user device includes using an anonymous ID for the one of the other consumers unaccompanied by other information uniquely identifying the one of the other consumers. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the generating the recommendation includes receiving on a for-fee basis an advertisement, and wherein using the at least one computer to transmit the recommendation includes transmitting the recommendation together with the advertisement to the user device. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the market data received from each of the other consumers comprises a numerical rating representing an extent to which the respective other consumers likes the item. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising distributing software to the user device, wherein the software is executable to initiate the receiving responsive to an operational milestone associated with the user device. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the software comprises a purchase decision process, and wherein the software is executable to generate the user-specific information as part of a purchase decision process for the item. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the receiving market data from the other consumers includes storing the market data in one or more physical memories, as part of a database, including storing fields sufficient to identify: (i) specific market data from each respective one of the other consumers; (ii) an identifier for each of the respective ones of the other consumers, and (iii) an indication of date that the market data from each respective one of the other consumers was received and stored. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the generating the recommendation includes aggregating the market data from multiple ones of the other consumers, to obtain aggregated data, and wherein using the at least one computer to transmit the recommendation includes transmitting the aggregated data to the user device as part of the recommendation. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein portions of the method are adapted for software download and execution by the user device. 
     
     
         17 . An apparatus, comprising:
 means for receiving user-specific information from a user device associated with a particular consumer via a wide area network;   means for receiving market data from other consumers via the wide area network, the market data including at least passively-collected operational data corresponding to an item;   means for storing the received market data;   means for generating a recommendation for the particular consumer based on the market data and the user-specific information; and   means for transmitting the recommendation to the user device.