Yesterday I wrote about the back story on our need to release an updated Scanner Kit SDK for the iPhone. If you are a developer who has already used our SDK in your app to scan barcodes or you are a developer thinking about using our SDK in your app – please download our new version ASAP. From the release notes:
NEW – (Friday July 30th, 2010) – Version 4.0.0
Complete overhaul of underlying barcode scanning and camera frame grabbing logic.
Vastly improved performance and API enhancements
Full compatibility with iOS 4.0 and Apple’s App Store policies and guidelines. (No more “UIGetScreenImage()”)
Full compatibility with iPhone 4, 3GS and 3G devices
Many of you know that we are in the midst of building out the new office for Big in Japan, but you may not know that we are outfitting the space with all of the best amenities for our developers – stuff like a fully stocked bar to an in-office gym with showers. My latest acquisition is perhaps the coolest. We have your run-of-the-mill pool table and foosball table and while we were thinking about adding a cabinet-style arcade game I have been reluctant to order one because a) we couldn’t decide on which game and b) what a huge waste of space. Of course that all changed when I saw the Gamerator. The Gamerator solves BOTH problems. First, it includes a BOATLOAD of classic and current video games resolving the ‘which game to buy problem’. Second the space inside of the cabinet is used by a kegerator (i.e. beer).
From Thrillist: “Legitimately badass keg-cade hardware includes a 26” HD flatscreen, a Golden Tee-style trackball next to a standard double-joystick setup, two critical cupholders, a spout/overflow drain below the joysticks, a refrigerated keg chamber w/ standard tap and C02 setup, and an optional, toggle-able international tap for kegs of the non-domestic stuff, for when you’re playing Ca-Stella-vania. On the software side, a legit user interface means easy navigation of the 85 classic arcade games (fromSpace Invaders, to Rampage, to Mortal Kombats I – III) that come pre-installed, while 1,000 downloadable games can be accessed via an included one-year subscription to GameTap, which they describe as “Netflix for video games”, so…Netflix.”
So get your order in fast (they are selling like hot cakes) or make sure you make it to our first Startup Happy Hour in October. Visit Gamerator.com for more info.
Just a quick programming note regarding our new office. The lease has been signed and we should have construction drawings submitted next week – still on target for our October 1st move in date. Here is the most recent space plan:
The Architel team is offering their clients (and anyone else) a managed video surveillance service for $250 per month (8-16 cameras). Included in the service fee are the cameras, digital video server AND access to each camera through an iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile and Nokia mobile application. Read more about their offering here. Here is a demo of the iPhone interface for the service:
HTC is selling a LOT of Android phones. HTC has three of the top ten Android phones and has been in the game longer than anyone else. ShopSavvy’s penetration is the highest on HTC’s devices. When I met Peter Chou in 2008 at the G1 launch in Manhattan I had never heard of HTC. Peter explained to me that he was betting his company on Android. By the time we met in Germany I had a better understanding of the man and his vision for HTC. Android still wasn’t a sure thing, but it sure felt like we were on to something. I felt pretty smart throwing my hat in the ring with Peter and his team – guess he was right about HTC AND Android.
Andreas Constantinou has an interesting post titled, “Mobile Developer Economic 2010: The migration of developer mindshare.” The most interesting part includes this graph, “One of the most telling clues about the speed of evolution of the new vs old platforms is the great disparity between the device installed base and the number of available apps for each platform. While Windows Phone, Symbian, Java and Flash have many times the market penetration of Android, iPhone and BlackBerry, the number of apps available tells a very different story.”
The folks at AdMob put together a chart detailing the popularity of various Android handsets and with the exception of the EVO, ShopSavvy’s popularity on the handsets is almost exactly the same. The most popular ShopSavvy phone is the Droid followed closely by the Hero. The EVO is is quickly moving up the charts, now the fourth most popular Android phone and poised to overtake the Hero.
Earlier this month ebay announced they had purchased Occipital’s Red Laser iPhone application. According to our sources, ebay paid $10 million dollars for the application and it’s 2 million users. The deal was an asset sale and the Occipital team will not be joining ebay. We are working on several potential deals and the sale of Red Laser for $10M has caused more than a few people have asked why we think ShopSavvy would be worth MORE than Red Laser. I thought it might make some sense to put ShopSavvy and Red Laser in context now that a price has been set.
Red Laser was very similar to ShopSavvy in that it allowed a user to scan a barcode, but instead of building their own backend product inventory and pricing platform they leveraged comparison pricing data from The Find and Google. Most of the ShopSavvy development is focused around what we call ‘PriceNark’ – our system for delivering local and online inventory and pricing from retailers to ShopSavvy. In 2008 we purchased the assets of a text book price comparison website called Textbook Trader which formed the basis of our price comparison platform. PriceNark allows us to deliver direct feeds from retailers, feeds from third party aggregators and web scraping with shopping cart insertion. Here is a side-by-side comparison:
Red Laser v. ShopSavvy iPhone Only iPhone and Android 2,000,000 users 5,000,000+ users
- AdOn Advertising Network
- PriceNark Backend 20K+ Retailers
- Dedicated and Passionate Team
How do we feel about the $10 million ‘comp’? To be honest we were pretty pumped when we learned about the deal. Based on a simple ‘per user’ valuation of $5/user ShopSavvy is easily worth $25,000,000. But I would argue that our backend system is every bit as powerful and valuable as a local comparison engine like Milo.com (valued at $15M+). Additionally our advertising network not only includes ShopSavvy installs, but also PriceGrabber, CBS Interactive/CNET and more than 100 licensees leveraging our barcode scanner SDK and AdOn framework. By the end of the summer we expect more than 10,000,000 mobile phones will run our advertising framework. At the end of the day we think the Red Laser/ebay deal is a very positive comparable especially when you take into account our user advantage, local/online shopping engine and advertising network.
Do you like to shop? Do you like getting good deals? Do you have an iPhone? Do you want to make a little spending money this summer? If so we might have an opportunity for you and your iPhone.
We make a comparison shopping application called ShopSavvy (available on iPhone and Android). We have great coverage from electronic retailers, but poor coverage from grocery stores and hardware stores.
We will provide you with a custom iPhone app that will allow you to collect data about the products sold in various stores. Simply scan the barcodes of a product, type in the product title, take a picture of the product, enter the name of the retailer and enter the price. Repeat. The data will be included in ShopSavvy helping consumers around the country get the best deal on products.
Interested? Email jdonica@architel.com and let her know where you live, if you have transportation and confirm you have an iPhone (if you have an Android phone let her know too).
As of yesterday we now have as many downloads on iPhone as we do on Android. It has been a long time coming but now we have just north of 40,000 downloads per day on iPhone (equal to our 40,000 on Android). 80,000 per day equals 560,000 per week or 2,400,000 new users per month. ShopSavvy is now the 19th most popular iPhone application and 2nd most popular utility.
Many of you know that we are in the midst of building out the new office for Big in Japan, but you may not know that we are outfitting the space with all of the best amenities for our developers – stuff like a fully stocked bar to an in-office gym with showers. My latest acquisition is perhaps the coolest. We have your run-of-the-mill pool table and foosball table and while we were thinking about adding a cabinet-style arcade game I have been reluctant to order one because a) we couldn’t decide on which game and b) what a huge waste of space. Of course that all changed when I saw the Gamerator. The Gamerator solves BOTH problems. First, it includes a BOATLOAD of classic and current video games resolving the ‘which game to buy problem’. Second the space inside of the cabinet is used by a kegerator (i.e. beer).
From 
