It is nice that this just takes a pic and hence requires no additional hardware, but I think part of the problem previously was also manufacturers didn’t want to associated with outside companies since it takes away part of the control from them. Sony would be just as likely to make their own application that does the same thing as to partner with a third party company that also services GE, LG, or other competitors.

yes, but when is guerilla marketing ever truly “negative”? i guess it’s negative for ad agencies who would prefer their cut of the creative pie, but generally, i see nothing wrong with viral advertising. instead of having corporate crap pushed in our faces, it’s corporate crap endorsed by your friends, so you know it’s good.

and i dont see the “chicken & egg” aspect of it. advertisers can use it for cheap with commercial license, and personal use is free. the market could be saturated and developers will develop apps to read these… which is how it’s taken off in Japan. at that point, it would then become a “feature” on your phone; which it would never be until advertisers start using it.

again, imagine every shelf or product label having this code. you could get product info immediately beyond the scope of a box or 1″ x 3″ shelf label. it would make printed media relevant once again. magazines dont make money on subscriptions… but if their bread and butter had more effective advertising, we may not buy the magazines, but we’ll be snapping codes at your local newsstand to view relevant ads.

and that’s just the media aspect. after living in japan and using the QR system, it’s truly revolutionary… you have thousands, even millions more people generating page hits. paying for parking and subways became a breeze with this combined with FeLiCa.

how many times have you been out shopping and saw and ad you wanted more info on but either forgot the address after you left or misstyped it only to say “screw it, it’s not that important” and went without? to simply take a snapshot without punching in a minimum of 15 button presses to find the info you desire is efficiency at it’s finest.

imagine if every product had a QR code you could scan and get more info? granted this is useless if you’re on a computer, but imagine being able to interact with actual product nearly as effortlessly as it is to click an HTML link in a browser?

just the run-up to ubiquity could increase advertising by way of increased site hits by making it so easy to access a website simply because of curiosity in the system. i implore that someone create a test site, then link it with a QR code… label it with “shoot me with beetagg” and then place these labels all over town in a “guerilla advertising” campaign. assign an adsense account to the site and watch your account grow. the curiosity alone will generate thousands of hits… and once you apply useful content, you’ll start seeing thousands of repeat hits.

ease of use is what turns people on to specific sites. a very prominent marketing professional who is a good friend of mine told me once that a successful web address will be less than 9 characters, end in “.com”, must stand out in a reader’s mind, and be relevant to its content. this is what increases the chance of it being hit otherwise it will be forgotten before the viewer can bookmark it. this critical “first step” to marketing your online presence is easily overcome with QR codes, even as available, relevant names get used or squatted on. imagine if every “berryxxxx.com” address were taken? would your site be as visited if it were a non-relevant name? or worse, “tinyurl.com/ncwqiusrhfqwer”? with a QR code, you can get a more abstract address, use a QR code in your advertising to make people aware of your service by visiting your site easily by removing the “first rule of web marketing”, and expose yourself to a larger audience with much more efficient advertising.