Web-based grocer Peapod has launched a free application for smartphones that allows consumers to place orders from their mobile device.

PeapodMobile is available for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as the Palm Pre and phones powered by the Android operating system. The Skokie-based company said customers can access lists of their previous purchases with the app and look up nutrition information for products, among other features.

Thomas Parkinson, Peapod’s chief technology officer, said in a statement that a recent survey revealed that more than 63 percent of respondents “sometimes or frequently” forget something while grocery shopping. The app helps solve that problem because customers can add “items to their cart whenever and wherever they think of them,” Parkinson said.