We are pleased to officially announce the release of ShopSavvy 4 on Android is released. ShopSavvy was original smartphone shopping application and one of the first 10 apps available in the Android market. The original version of ShopSavvy was built BEFORE Apple launched the iPhone App store and was the winner of Google’s Android Developer Challenge. Today, the application is one of the most downloaded apps on Android with over 10 million users. While ShopSavvy is popular on the iPhone (top 100 overall app), for every iPhone user we have 4 Android users. ShopSavvy 4 is a complete overhaul of the original application – almost one year in the making. (Oh and before you ask, we renamed the old app GoCart and you can download it here or get it from the market to keep using the original version of ShopSavvy). Writing a story and need pictures or video? Download our presskit for pictures or visit our digital newsroom for video.

Major Look & Feel Overhaul. ShopSavvy 4 on Android offers users a completely revamped design leveraging all of the latest Android elements and features. The new updated look is clean and crisp offering Android users an arguably better user interface than their iPhone counterparts. The Springboard, seen to the right, is modeled on the Android Market and has been a huge hit with beta testers who rave about the ‘scans happening right now’ feature which allows them a glimpse into the shopping activity of other users.

Deals, Live and Local. While users rave about the new Live Deals constant stream of product deals found by other users, they are also enjoying Local deals from our various partners including Groupon. Today there are deals offering users a chance to win everything from laptops to iPads simply for scanning everyday products. (European users will be glad to note that you can disable live deals in settings to save bandwidth – metered data is expensive)

New Scanner Technology. ShopSavvy 4 offers Android users the same scanning technology we originally implemented in our iPhone version (the SDK is available to any Android or iPhone developer for free). The new SDK is almost twice as fast as our original implementation. Approximately 20% of Android users have phones with fixed focal length cameras that render almost all scanner apps useless. Our latest technology supports BOTH fixed focal length and variable focal length cameras – scanning all 1D and 2D barcodes. Our secret is a combination of on the phone scanning AND server side scanning – the combination allows us to double the speed of each scan while supporting all camera types. Users can now scan barcodes upside down, sideways or right side up – 360 degree scanning.

Enhanced Product Coverage. ShopSavvy 4 on Android allows users to leverage the latest version of our product/retailer catalog called PriceNark 4 (an upgraded version from 3.2 the previous version of ShopSavvy used). Product coverage is now 50% greater and includes local inventory from hundreds of local retailers in the US and Europe. PriceNark 4, while much like local search engines like Milo or Krillion, also leverages product and price data from other users – each minute more than five prices from local retailers are entered by users making PriceNark the most complete local search engine. Users are notified of local inventory through the use of the ‘blue dot’. Whenever users see the blue dot next to a retailer you know they have it in stock (stocking status provided by retailer).

More Complete Social Integration. ShopSavvy 4 now includes product and list sharing options for Facebook, Twitter and email allowing users to pass along deals to their friends.

Battery Life Improvements. Android users who monitor battery usage will note that ShopSavvy 4 uses just a fraction of the battery life that the original version consumed. (Of course this means we might not get your location as quickly, but we let you add your ZIP – US only – and we will assume you are there until we get your actual location)

App to SD Card. The second most requested feature from Android users was the option to run the app from the SD card. ShopSavvy 4 gives the user the option of running the app from the device or the SD card.

Search Widget. Many Android users leverage app ‘widgets’ to keep app functionality at their fingertips on the home screen. The new version of ShopSavvy allows users to install a keyword search widget on the home screen. Just type in a product or upc and ShopSavvy will let you know which local and online stores carry the item. (For those of you who have been asking, we turned on the hardware search button found on many newer phones – it now turns on keyword search)

Enhanced Retailer Information. ShopSavvy 4 delivers LOTS of information about the retailers who carry the products user scan. Users can call the store, get driving directions, visit the website or find out the price matching policy of the retailer. See a product cheaper somewhere else? Save gas and just check to see if the store you are standing in will match the lower price you found elsewhere.

User Generated Content. The MOST requested feature from users was the ability to add/edit products. From the picture to the title users wanted to be able to ‘fix’ or customize products. Now any user can edit the product image and title of any product. We have more than 22,000,000 product photos in the system and users are adding more than five a minute. Just click the ‘edit’ button in the top right corner of the product screen. You can also add retailers and prices if you wish – paying it forward to another user who might be shopping for that item in the future.

AdOns. Enhanced product experiences and information is available via our HTML5 sAdOn framework. AdOns leverage video content, Facebook integration and gaming modalities to help users learn about the products they scan. From health tips, allergy alerts, movie/game trailers to reviews – AdOns help create a more complete picture of a particular product.

Writing a story about ShopSavvy on Android (or iPhone)? Here is our presskit. If you want some b-roll video of people using ShopSavvy check out our digital newsroom.