Phone App Helps You Shop

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- When 24-year-old software developer Jeff Mixon found a Blackberry in the middle of the road, he had no idea it was the start of a journey.

"I developed an application for the phone to raise money to buy a new Blackberry, and people started buying the application," says Mixon.

Since then, his company, SteelThorn, has developed nine Blackberry Apps, the latest being Edocrab.

It is a shopping companion tool.

Mixon says, "You take a picture of the UPC with your Blackberry and in minutes it compares prices, even gives you reviews and you can shop and buy from your cell phone."

His company, which is only 16-months old, is making the Edocrab download free to anyone.

"We have had 26 thousand downloads so far, " says Mixon.

He says his goal is to have one million downloads by the end of the year and next year his company will market Edocrab in Canada.

SteelThorn operates out of a bedroom/office space in a South Jacksonville Condominium. But in ten years, Mixon would like to see his software development company in a different location.

The company has three employees, Mixon, his wife and Brian Baggs.

Recently, Edocrab was entered into a Verizon wireless developers contest, and now it is among the semi-finals.

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