Thank you all for your comments and emails about ShopSavvy. The most common question (perhaps 75%) is, “will you have an iPhone version?” All I can say is that I have seen something that would lead me to believe we might:
But I can tell you, even if ShopSavvy shows up on an iPhone – it won’t hold a candle to the G1 version. Why? First, the Apple SDK won’t allow direct interaction with the camera (limits application access to the picker). Second, the camera on the Apple is of a ‘fixed focal length’ and as a result we have no way of turning it into a live scanner as we do on the G1. So, if you are looking for the REAL ShopSavvy experience you better get a G1 from T-Mobile – because the iPhone doesn’t come close…
According to T-Mobile CMO Denny Marie Post, ShopSavvy is one of Android’s ‘star applications’ She explains, “You’ll see in the campaign it’s a way of bringing the applications to life, ultimately, some of the star applications. Google Maps with street view, and ShopSavvy are two that we’re very excited about, among many, but those two in particular because they have real impact for the customer. Particularly ShopSavvy in this economy.” Read more in the Business Technology section of the Wall Street Journal here.
Not sure what I think about the first G1 ad – hopefully it is a pimer for more detailed ads featuring ShopSavvy!
Don’t expect it to last with titles like MySpace and Facebook, but today ShopSavvy is the most popular application in the Android Market. This despite the fact that the application was removed and reinstalled yesterday around lunch time. Within two hours of its appearance in the Market, according to Jason Chen from Google, ShopSavvy had been installed by 3096 people and in actual use (scanning barcodes) by 3033 of them (97% active users). This was a pretty exciting two hours. Our server loads have spiked, but our balancers seem to be handling everything very well. Our hope is to have Amazon EC2 as our primary backup – we are working closely with Novell to get ShopSavvy up on Mono (allowing us to run .Net on Amazon).
Google is working hard to launch Android Market’s web FE for developers so that install and usage data can be viewed from our publisher account. Of course, our own system has all of the usage data we can handle – hopefully we will have our own frontend up and running in a couple of weeks.
Check out the extensive piece on ShopSavvy here: ABC News
The day has finally come, Android has finally been released on day before the launch of the first Android handset – the G1. Here are the goodies:
Want to learn more about Android and the development of applications for the open platform? Come on out to AndroidDevCamp on Saturday. Register on Upcoming.org here: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1116168/
Better get down to T-Mobile and reserve your G1 today so you will have it for AndroidDevCamp on Saturday. We have finalized the schedule. Our plan is to have four main presentations including: a) How to get started on Android, b) Google’s Android Developers Challenge I & II, c) ShopSavvy and d) Android Fundamentals. There will three breakout sessions where interested developers can meet to share ideas and form working groups. Our goal is to have more ADC II entrants from Dallas than any other city on the planet – we will have a headstart. Show up at 10AM and plan to make a day of it (we will bring the pizza) – we will wrap up at 3:30 PM with an after party at Black Friars. If you want to attend you MUST rsvp on Upcoming.org here: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1116168/
T-Mobile, in perhaps the smartest mobile launch in history, held a party to celebrate the launch of the G1 and ShopSavvy last weekend. The star-studed event included celebrities such as Molly Sims, Mischa Barton, Nick Cannon, Anthony Anderson, Juliette Lews, Brittney Snow, Erika Christensen, Stacy Keibler, Bonnie Somerville and Rosario Dawson. To keep the party going, the Andrew Sherrard (T-Mobile) hired The Raconteurs (lead by Jack White of the White Stripes) and DJ Cassidy to keep Stacy Keibler and Bonnie Somerville dancing throughout the night. Meanwhile over at the ShopSavvy booth Mischa Barton and Molly Sims couldn’t stop scanning sample items. They couldn’t wait to get ShopSavvy into the wild to assist their handbag shopping. Evidently, even stars like bargains!
Tom Samiljan is hopefully excited about the G1, but also a little disappointed. In his post he asks, “Is the G1 Google Phone Worth the Hype?” Tom mentions ShopSavvy, but doesn’t really offer a review. Come on Tom, let us know what you think about ShopSavvy – that IS what everyone is concerned about (tongue-in-cheek)!
Hiawatha Bray from the Boston Globe writes today, “you’ve got to love ShopSavvy’. Explaining, it “uses the phone’s camera to take a picture of the bar codes on products. It then uses the phone’s data connection to look up the product and search for Internet retailers that may sell it for less. And it uses the phone’s GPS location system to see where you are, and try to find nearby retailers that might offer a lower price.”
Hiawatha correctly points out, “But it’s the software that makes this phone an Android. Google built its wealth and power by developing search software in the open, uncontrolled environment of the Internet, where anybody can create and distribute any kind of software. But most cellphone software is tightly controlled by its creators – companies like Microsoft Corp.” Thanks for the plug Boston!
