We had some great press today regarding one of our newest features, SavvyListings. The enthusiasm has been overwhelming and we are excited about this feature as well. With the announcement, we wanted to take a quick opportunity to add more information about this feature related to a user’s ability to remove a listing from the ShopSavvy marketplace:

You absolutely can remove the listing on the Android version of ShopSavvy.  This capability is live in ShopSavvy today.

On iPhone, this capability is currently pending review and approval in the iTunes marketplace.

As an early taste, below are screenshots of what to expect in this release:

We just finished our fourth Christmas here at ShopSavvy (still can’t believe ShopSavvy has been around that long) and I thought it was worth writing a post about the differences we see between our Android users and our iOS users. This afternoon I posted a few stats we have gathered from our Wallet feature. One stat that really seemed to bother folks were the user adoption rates for our Wallet feature between iOS and Android users – we are seeing a 10:1 ratio on creation and usage between the two platforms.

First, we need to put our cards on the table. ShopSavvy was one of the first Android apps available and Google awarded us $300K in the Android Developer Challenge back in 2008. Needless to say, we are pretty fond of Google and their team. More recently our friends at Apple have been VERY cool to us as well – featuring ShopSavvy in the iTunes store.

Here are some general observations about our Android Users:

• more willing to beta test new/complete features (good trait)
• more forgiving of bugs/crashes(good trait)
• more willing to give you a second chance, and update their market ratings(good trait)
• less willing to respond to questionnaires and polls (frustrating trait)
• far more likely to report you as a spammer if you send them emails (frustrating trait)
• far more concerned about giving access to various permissions (frustrating trait)
• more likely to request support via email or phone (good trait)

When we released our wallet feature on both Android and iOS we updated our permission request to include the user’s address book. The permission was required so that we could auto-fill the user’s name, email, address and phone number from the user’s own address book. iOS users appreciated the feature and mentioned it in their ratings as a time saver. On the other hand, Android users immediately began giving us 1-star ratings in the Android Market and accused us of ‘stealing’ their contacts. We tried to explain the reasoning behind the address permission, but in the end we just gave up and turned off the permission. Android users would have to manually fill in their name, email, address and phone number themselves. As a result of this ‘fear’ we believe our uptake on Android wallets has suffered (the numbers tend to agree).

Why do iOS users seem more trusting than Android users? Perhaps they aren’t really more trusting in general, but perhaps the ecosystem that Apple has created offers them a sense of security. Apple is very strict about which apps get in the market and updates are scrutinized. Google’s open system – anything goes – forces users to fend for themselves. Which is better? I am not sure, but I really do believe that Apple has made it easier for developers like ShopSavvy to gain user trust more rapidly. On the other hand, Android users are far more accepting of bugs and are willing to help you make your app better – this is very cool and something we do not see among iOS users. Which users are best? The ones that use ShopSavvy, of course.

Millions of ShopSavvy users have, at one time or another, updated the photo of a product. When we added the ability for users to edit product images, titles, retailers and prices we were surprised how many users added ‘action shots’ of products. What is the difference between a user generated product image and an action shot? The original intent was for users to add photos of products that didn’t have an image or those with low quality images. Action shots often include the user holding the product or perhaps the user’s dog holding the product. There are SOOOOO many great pictures that users have uploaded we decided it would be fun to let you see them in the app. Beginning in our latest Android release (i.e. it is not in our current iOS release) in the lower right corner of the product preview page (i.e. the one with the product picture) you will see a ‘Photos’ icon. You can click here to see and vote on action shots submitted by other users. You can also add your own action shots. You can still ‘edit’ the photo in the options menu, but now you have a quick an easy way to add fun action shots. Since we have more than 20,000,000 user photos in our system we can’t comb through them all and determine which are user gen and which are action shots – instead we are starting fresh so you won’t see many action shots to start with. Check out some example ‘action shots’ our users have uploaded for Toy Story 3.

It isn’t the Android Market yet, but for those of you willing to help us find bugs the beta is for you. The Android beta is ready to go, and can be downloaded and side-loaded from here:

http://shopsavvy.mobi/UIPrototype.apk

The two big updates to the Android client this release are:

• We’ve reset the Welcome Sequence flow so that it’s re-shown to users again; this is to help try to bump user regs
• We’ve introduced the new Social Photos concept. You can find this by tapping into a product details page, and then tapping on the new “Activity” button in the bottom right. You’ll then be brought to the new photos carousel where you can view, and thumbs-up photos that you like. Or, you can add your own. This is the start of our new ShopSavvy Open Graph features that will become the foundation for our community framework going forward. Missing in this beta is the “Report this photo”, which will be a small icon at the top right corner of each photo that allows community enforcement of which photos are inappropriate. Those reported photos will go into a photo moderation tool that will allow us to review and take action as needed.
• We’ve done some adjustment to the location logic in this version. This should be fairly transparent, but let us know if you even notice the updates.

Please take a look and let us know what you like, don’t like, or any bugs you encounter. This is a Beta release so you WILL find bugs, but please report anything you find to me. We want to make sure all buggy scenarios are covered in the final release next week.

ShopSavvy was one of the first ten apps available on Android so we have always been popular on the platform, but this month has been amazing with over 1.2 million new users joining the ShopSavvy family. Wow.

This summer it hasn’t been unusual to add a million users in a month, but we were adding 500,000 from Android and 500,000 from iOS (not counting WP7 and Symbian). We were wondering why. I suspect it is simply a result of the success of the Android platform – I see Android devices EVERYWHERE.

Thanks Google, you rock! FYI – we have a new version of ShopSavvy on Android due later today (so update and rate). Thanks!

September is shaping up to be a record month for ShopSavvy. Our prior record for traffic and new users was set back in May. Things were pretty slow between June and August as they always are, but we were surprised to see consumers out shopping this early. We usually don’t see a massive increase in users and downloads until October. Our biggest growth was on the Android side. Some of our newer features like ‘Scans Near You’ seem to be a big hit (coming someday to iOS) as well as the new ShopSavvy Wallet.

Matthias spent a little time crunching some of our numbers for an internal project and came up with some interesting graphics. He built a couple of visualizations that show the breakdown of ShopSavvy users by OS by state. Red = Android and iOS = Blue.

Ever wonder which state has the most Android users versus iOS users? South Dakota. Ever wonder which state has the most iOS users versus Android users? Alaska. Where does your state stand on the Android/iOS question?

The Metroplex Technology Business Council (MTBC), the largest technology trade organization in Texas, has named ShopSavvy a finalist in the Emerging Company Horizon Award category as part of the 11th Annual Tech Titans and Titan Fast Tech Awards.

The Emerging Company Horizon Award recognizes a company for outstanding innovation and unique accomplishments through recent breakthrough technology or approaches within the technology and communications industries.

Tech Titans are recognized as outstanding technology companies and individuals in the North Texas area who have made significant contributions to their industries during the past year. The winners will be revealed at a gala at the Hilton Anatole on Friday, August 26. More information about the event is available at www.metroplextbc.org/techtitans.

We’re excited to welcome Jason Alexander (no, not that Jason Alexander) as our new vice president of engineering.

From today’s press release:

ShopSavvy Names Jason Alexander Vice President of Engineering

Veteran entrepreneur and leader has more than 15 years of experience guiding development teams.

ShopSavvy, the leading mobile shopping assistant, today announced that it has named Jason Alexander vice president of engineering. In this role, Alexander will lead the company’s engineers who write the code used by more than 11 million ShopSavvy users.

“Jason has had significant experience and an impressive record of achievement in leading development teams at companies like Match.com and Telligent,” said Alexander Muse, co-founder and CEO of ShopSavvy. “He will serve an important role in coordinating the efforts of our developers as we continue to expand ShopSavvy’s capabilities and enhance the user experience.”

Prior to joining ShopSavvy, Alexander served as director of development, fraud prevention, for Match.com, where he consolidated the company’s fraud operations and developed fraud prevention strategies resulting in two patents. Before Match.com, Alexander served as director of technology for D Magazine Partners.

Alexander is best known for co-founding Telligent, the enterprise collaboration and community software company. As Telligent’s chief technology officer from 2004 to 2009, Alexander helped grow the company to 150 employees and raise $20 million in Series A financing from Intel Capital.

Alexander began his career with AudioNet/Broadcast.com, the company that Mark Cuban later sold to Yahoo. He attended the University of North Texas, where he studied computer science.