NY-Times: New Bar Codes Can Talk With Your Cellphone
The Sunday Edition of the New York Times had a good frontpage article on 2D barcode technology. The article gives an ok overview of some of the players and describes some scenarios where 2D barcodes are currently used. Strangely they have a callout box in their article featuring “qode” some NeoMedia (the company who believes they have the patent on scanning barcodes for cellphones) venture I never paid any attention to. It would have been a better article if it had highlighted some of the differences between the codes; “quode” is not an open code like QR-code or datamatrix and is based on the business model of selling the creation of it proprietary codes. Everybody can create QR-codes and datamatrix codes for free. Also it should have at least hinted at the problem of the existence of several code types as seen from a user perspective; the more code types that exist the more frustrating it gets for the user. As the article rightly points out, 2D barcodes can be a big push for the mobile web, but only if we bring it down to one or max two barcodes types. I don’t see users choosing between different barcode scanners when interacting with a physical object. The money is in the content and not in the codes. It would have been great for them to mention that the latest Nokia n-series devices already ship with QR-code and datamatrix readers preinstalled. A statement of Apple IPhone division would have been great as well.
Overall a good article that heightens the awareness of 2D barcode technologies.