barcoo took a look at the scan habits of Android and iPhone users and decided to compare both to each other. While both Android and iPhone users in Germany seem to thrive on Nutella as their breakfast spread of choice – the differences are pretty interesting.

We are often asked to what proportion the various mobile operating systems are represented by our users. The last statistic is nearly one year old, so it’s now time for an update. Below is the evolution of the various mobile platforms at barcoo:

You will have noticed the striking Samsung bada dent in the middle of last year. This is due to the fact that we supported bada from the start, that the Samsung devices sold well and that their app store was pretty empty. Therefore users downloaded most of the few apps available to them in the store. This temporary high market share could not be kept indefinitely. With a current overall market share of 5%, but nonetheless increasing steadily, the bada platform should still remain of interest to some app developers.

Nokia Symbian is a tragedy (see analysis by Tomi Ahonen). From August 31st, barcoo will cease supporting Nokia Symbian. It was a very painful decision: we’ve invested again and again in this platform, but now it’s enough. It’s all over.

In the graph, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry are hardly to be seen. Here also, because of the continued lack of use, we have been compelled to discontinue support for these platforms. We are currently not planning any WP7 or webOS version either. Anyone interested in detailed statistics will find the historical data in Google Docs.

The evolution of the current market share, compared to the average for 2010:

No surprises. It should be quite clear where we’re heading. Or not? Nokia will be (most likely) purchased soon. A lot is possible then: Maybe MeeGo after all? Exciting.

Okay, so it’s still in an experimental phase. But it’s cool anyway, and that’s why all Android users can give it a try now immediately: We have integrated object recognition into barcoo in cooperation with Deutsche Telekom Laboratories. It’s only a limited test-run for now and works exclusively with drinks. That’s why we need your help. Object recognition is a great thing because all you have to do is hold up your smartphone’s camera to a product, which is then automatically recognized, thus rendering the search for the barcode unnecessary. When starting the Android app you’ll find the following little button on the bottom:

When you click on it, the camera window automatically appears, allowing you to search for bottled or canned drinks and to try and identify them.

Object recognition in barcoo

Since we can’t always find out the exact product immediately, a short list appears from which you have to select the appropriate product. When you do that, you’re helping improve recognition technology. The visual search doesn’t work with character recognition like our peers’ (cool) Goggles (for products) which would “only” iniate a Google search for “rivella” for the example above. When using barcoo, it’s only that specific product by rivella that gets identified. Have fun giving it a try!

Since barcoo’s inception in January 2009 (in Germany), we’ve made an insane amount of changes and developments in just about everything but our app’s design (the very format of the information), which has stayed more or less the same. But the ever-accumulating information on barcoo’s database too often ended up diffusing into endless snaking chains and word blocks, which became quite the eye sore.

Now, after having thoroughly analyzed barcoo’s usage, we’ve developed a whole new design that will enhance your usage of the app. Here’s what it looks like:

There are three so-called ‘tabs’ that structure all of the contents: information, prices and evaluations. The product information is preselected by default (with the food traffic light, the sustainability traffic light and lots of other background information). However, the core information of the other two tabs is still visible in the top righthand corner. This design is immediately available for each of the two million people who’ve already installed barcoo! Marcus is looking forward to your Feedback.

Business partners often ask us how the different mobile phone platforms perform on our service. Our strategy was and will be to deliver our services on any platform that is relevant.  Currently that would encompass seven platforms (although some primarily are kept for historical reasons). Through having more than one million installations, the numbers should be relatively representative (at least for Germany).  One cannot keep them uncommented, but when we share the distribution, we gladly share it with you.

Here is the distribution of scans using barcoo in September 2010:

Samsumg bada is extremely prominent. The success we experienced with the launch of barcoo on bada at the beginning of August nearly knocked our socks off. Certainly this is due to Samsung Apps not bustling with as many other high quality apps like other app directories. We are excited to see how this plattform will continue to develop.

Android continues to become stronger with every month and is slowly, but surely,  taking away market shares from the other players. We have had the advantage to be present on the German Android market from Day One in Germany and therefore to have obtained a dream position in this (not very agile) market.  We have neglected the Nokia Symbian platform but we are hoping it’s market share will rise again as soon as our new release (1.5 years after the last one) goes live at the Ovi Store. The new release will not only support more current models but will also greatly improve the user experience.

So much for the lastest information from barcoo metrics.

We’ve been preparing and working on it for months and now it’s finally ready: barcoo launched in the UK and in France! But do these countries really need yet another barcode scanner? Absolutely, because so far barcoo is the only app worldwide to bring cosumers transparency in all dimensions:

- of course (local) price comparison
- product reviews and user comments
- nutritional traffic light system
- sustainability footprint (corporate social responsibility of producers)
- information about fish population and sustainable consumption
- crowdsourcing: you add new products, images and prices using your mobile phones
- Social Elements

And naturally we’re rolling out our platform spanning strategy and launched on iPhone, Android, Nokia and bada right from the beginning. Bonjour la France – Hello UK! Spread the word.

A few weeks ago we launched the social shopping module “Scan Hero”. It cought on pretty good but functionality was – to be honest – fairly limited. So we decided to up the ante: Scan Hero will be more interactive, more playful and more social! In detail that means:

• Implementation of a scoring system: Each tick will earn you points. For reasons of fair play the score will be reset at the beginning of each week, but you can see top scorer lists and check out who’s more active and who’s the most active (prizes for the most loyal Scan Heros are an option for the future).
• You can now talk to each other. Many of our users asked to be connected to other users and exchange opinions about products or anything else. Your wish is our command.
• In general you’ll get more notifications when there’s news about your Scan Tick. For example, if there are new comments or anybody else becomes Scan Hero of one of you products.
• Since we’re starting to become satisfied with Scan Hero’s functionalities we decided to move the button to use it from the very bottom right to the top of the result screen!

And this is what it looks like as of today (in the next weeks also in UK & FR):

Plus, because we’re gaining every day almost more new Android users than iPhone users Scan Hero has been released for Android just now :) Happy Tickering!