Steven Brun
Android and iPhone Barcode SDK Available
I am pleased to announce that we now have released both our iPhone and Android barcode scanner SDKs. They are free for developers and brands to use with our license agreement. We are nearing release of Windows Mobile and Blackberry SDKs so stay tuned. The Android version was released in Beta last week and is now live for developers: Android Barcode Scanner SDK. More than 24 developers have downloaded the Android SDK since it went live this morning compared with more than 450 downloads of the iPhone Barcode Scanner SDK.
More and more Android phones are being released without auto-focus cameras. When Verizon released the Motorola Devour, AT&T released the HTC Lancaster and T-Mobile released the HTC Tattoo – thousands of consumers emailed us complaining barcode-scanning ipad scan app like ShopSavvy didn’t work. All three had cameras without auto-focus. In our conversations with phone manufacturers we learned that as many as 30% of Android phones in the future would ship with a fixed focal length camera. We decided we had to create an entirely new scanning library to support ‘blurry barcode scanning’.
Our primary hope is that by licensing our technology at no cost to developers and brands we can bring 1D and 2D barcode scanning into the mainstream. We believe barcode scanning is a great feature that augments the user experience of any number of applications. By including a very simple, but powerful ad framework within our SDK we create an entirely new revenue stream for your application.
First released in late 2008, our 1D barcode scanning technology debuted on the first Google Android smartphone and our 2D barcode (QR Codes) scanning technology was one of the first iPhone applications accepted in the iTunes market. For almost two years millions of Android and iPhone users have scanned hundreds of millions of barcodes using our technology. Our latest technology brings together all of our experience scanning 1D and 2D barcodes on several different platforms (iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, Blackberry and Symbian).
Hundreds of man-hours were spent creating our latest library, but instead of attempting to license our technology for a fee, we have decided to offer it to developers for free. The catch? Simply agree to include our ad framework to display a relevant ad (based on user’s location and product scanned) immediately following the barcode scan. The ad won’t interfere with your UI and is very easy to dismiss. We only ask for 30% of the ad inventory – the developer can sell the remaining 70%, leave it blank or work with our team to sell it for him. We hope this is model creates a win-win for most developers. For more information visit the following links or email sales-biggu.
Update to Barcode Scanner SDK Available Today!
Jake just checked in the updated (and tested) version of our free barcode scanner SDK for iPhone: scannersdk, please replace your existing files with these. There are a few bug fixes as well as a few treats (performance on 2G and 3G phones is now faster than 3GS). Enjoy! The Android SDK should be available tomorrow tonight (knock on wood) and our Blackberry and Windows Mobile version should be available any day.
