Govt reveals Budget app cost, Countdown reveals number of downloads

UPDATE May 28: Progressive has released an Android version of its Countdown shopping app today (as of 9.30am it did not seem to be on Google Play - formerly Android Market - yet).

The supermarket operator says the iPhone version of the app, released May 11, has been downloaded 45,000 times.

The app has received good notices.

But NBR ONLINE would still like the ability to redeem (rather than just check) rewards points. And to be able to share a list between two or more iPhones as it's created (lists can be emailed to others).

Both features would help ensure those 45,000 keep using the app after downloading it and having a look.

Meanwhile, the government has revealed download numbers for its NZ Budget app, available in iPhone, iPad and Android versions.

The app was downloaded 8600 times and was New Zealand’s most popular free-download app on Budget day, Finance Minister Bill English says.

He says the app, which came preloaded with Budget documents, cost $59,000 (making it a tidy little score for Wellington developer PaperKite).

The cost of developing the app will be funded through savings in Budget printing costs, which are expected to be at least $100,000, the Finance Minister says.

The $59,000 bill works out to $6.86 per download - at least, so far.

Countdown's iPhone app, Google's self-driving car

May 11: Before we get to Google's self-driving car - at the more utilitarian end of the scale, Countdown has created a shopping iPhone app, working with Tigerspike - an Australian developer best known for the Economist's iPad app.

It's got some cute features, such as the ability to scan an item's barcode before you biff it out of pantry - automatically adding it to the shopping list on your iPhone.

And apparently it can even guide you toward specials in specific aisles of your local supermarket. You can also use it to shop online, and there's some kind of component for managing your points (and hopefully for redeeming - a super-slow process with cards or vouchers).

Like any annoying number of mobile development efforts, Countdown is living in a parallel universe where Android phones have yet to gain majority smartphone share. Wake up iPhone-obsessed developers, it's not 2010 anymore. Android versions of apps should be released at the same time (UPDATE: An Android version is due in about a month; no Windows Phone or BlackBerry or other versions are in the pipeline.).

How big?
Countdown won't say how many people use its online shopping service. But a spokesman did tell NBR ONLINE that the chain has 159 stores; if online shopping transactions could be considered a single virtual store, its sales volume would be larger than any single bricks and mortar outlet. "Tens of thousands" are using the online shopping option.

But anyhow, worth checking out if you're in the Countdown camp and don't mind the slightly creepy and depressing process of having all your purchases tracked (I buy how much cheap wine?).

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Below is Google's official clip of its self-drive car, which this week became the first autonomous vehicle to get licensed for the road (in the US state of Nevada).

It's a Toyota Prius sporting a roof-mounted laser-guidance/collision avoidence system, and an oboard computer with artificial intelligence and, but of course, a GPS-enabled Google Maps.

For "safety reasons" Google's self-drive cars are never un-manned.

Yet they could be.

That raises an intriguing possibility.

Why own two cars if you could, say, drive your vehicle to work, then it could self-drive home for your partner to use during the day - before he or she dispatches it to self-drive to the office for your trip home.

So if Ford and others really nail their self-drive car initiatives they could .. half sales.