This morning I woke up to find that someone had commissioned a comparison between ShopSavvy and ScanLife. The post was titled “UPC Scanner App Comparison: ShopSavvy vs. ScanLife” and was found on the From One Mommy to Another. From what we can tell the two important guidlines of the test were:

- Comparison to take place on the HTC Thunderbolt
- Shopping to take place in Nordstroms

When I read these two guidelines I knew we were in trouble. First, HTC’s Thunderbolt has a big problem with garbage collection causing apps that use large pictures (like ShopSavvy and Facebook) to crash. While HTC is working on a fix, in the meantime Thunderbolt owners are really struggling to use ShopSavvy. Apps like Scanlife that don’t use large pictures or heavy graphics don’t crash as often. Second, Nordstroms provides us a feed of their pricing and inventory data, BUT their products are often unique to their stores. Many of their items can ONLY be found in Nordstroms making a PRICE COMPARISON app basically useless since other retailers don’t sell the other products. Based on these two factors I assumed we were set up to fail.

But when I scrolled down to the bottom of the page (and let me tell you, it was a long article) I was shocked to learn that the author actually picked ShopSavvy – HANDS DOWN! Here was her quote: “Overall, ShopSavvy wins this comparison hands down.  It is as easy to use as ScanLife, but the organization and added features take it beyond being just a basic scanner.”

I was floored! I can’t wait until she gets the HTC fix and goes to a store with products sold by multiple retailers.