ShopSavvy brings smart shopping to T-Mobile's G1
Filed under: Shopping, Technology
The tech news sites have been aflutter with details for the T-Mobile G1, the first phone to run Google's mobile operating system -- dubbed "Android". The phone packs loads of features and looks like it will give the iPhone a run for its money, especially if all applications are as useful as ShopSavvy, which was chosen as one of the 10 winners of the Google Challenge, and which will be offered for free when the G1 launches.I haven't had a chance to use the ShopSavvy application yet, but after watching the demo, which is embedded below, I'm ready to get a G1 today! This little program looks to do more on your phone than most full-fledged price comparison sites. Checking the price is as easy as scanning the product's barcode with the built-in camera. From there you can see local and web prices as well as set a price alert in case you're waiting for the product to fit your budget. If you plan to buy the item in a local store, as determined by GPS, ShopSavvy enables you to map their location or give them a call.
If the price is cheaper online, you can email yourself the link or visit the product page right from your phone. Speaking of online features; you can even create your own wish lists just by scanning the items with the camera. I wish we would have been able to use this feature when we were building our wedding registry a few years back. The fact that ShopSavvy helps you avoid clunky in-store systems plagued with downtime all while publishing the items to the web for guests to buy wherever is freakin' genius!
Another cool feature which is sure to please those of us who enjoy games, movies, books and music is that ShopSavvy will also connect you with reviews for whatever item you are looking at. You can even sort by satisfaction level to make sure you take in all ranges of opinions. If this had been around a decade ago I could have avoided purchasing MMMbop, saving myself both money and embarrassment!
In all seriousness this is a cool app which no G1 owner should be without especially since it's free. I am hoping the UPC database is deep enough that it will let users find the price for everyday items like a box of cereal so that they don't have to waste time finding a store scanner. Best of all since it's free to users of T-Mobile's G1 you'll start saving instantly. The G1 is available for $179 with a two year contract and $399 without!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-27-2008 @ 10:00AM
Alexander Muse said...
Thanks for your review! We are really excited about the application!
Reply
9-28-2008 @ 11:02AM
Ash Searle said...
Mobile price-comparison is going to be great - but fraught with disappointment.
We've been working on this for a while at http://ewelike.com and had many problems with phone cameras being too blurry or low-resolution to scan barcodes properly - so we let people type in the barcodes themselves instead.
There are loads of issues to solve, regardless of how you get the barcode into the phone. To name a few:
What do you do when the store covers the product barcode with their own sticker? (e.g. Borders' books.)
Do you know local store inventory levels - or are you going to send people hiking three-miles assuming every HMV store carries every CD?
Do you have the right in-store price, or do you assume they're the same as online prices? (again, HMV - in the UK at least - has separate street and online prices.)
Oh... and then there's the question of which items you can scan and which you can't. You mentioned cereal... fine if it's a big brand cereal sold in multiple stores (where price-comparison may make sense.) But if it's a stores own-brand you'll find price-comparison is both pointless, and the barcode is meaningless (using a special range of numbers any store can use for any internal purpose.)
Fingers-crossed that most of the time the user's going to be happy - but they're going to have to learn the limitations through trial-and-error, and it's going to cause frustration and anger for a while.
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10-01-2008 @ 4:56PM
Alexander Muse said...
Love to connect. Perhaps we could work together - i.e. bring the functionality of ShopSavvy together with your comparison technology. Ping me at 1_214.550.2003 if you would like to chat.
9-28-2008 @ 3:59PM
streetstylz said...
I wonder if the creators of ShopSavvy know that they are in violation of NeoMedia's patents?
http://neom.com/13.html
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10-01-2008 @ 4:54PM
Alexander Muse said...
Streetstylz knows good and well Big in Japan is NOT in violation of any patents. Here is more about his smear campaign against ShopSavvy: http://www.biggu.com/2008/10/01/barcode-ip-landscape/
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10-01-2008 @ 8:18PM
Alexander Muse said...
Streetstylz knows good and well Big in Japan is NOT in violation of any patents. Here is more about his smear campaign against ShopSavvy: http://www.biggu.com/2008/10/01/barcode-ip-landscape/
Reply
10-18-2008 @ 9:54AM
satya said...
Really good article. I have been following your blog for last 3 months. You have good knowledge
on Mobile(cell phone) Industry and happenings. Please continue the good work. Thank you.
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