Thursday, January 06, 2005

Close But It's Missing The Universal Aspect

From Finance Asia.com A round-up of all the latest tech news in the region.

Online marketer Quin Land Co. announced it will start selling bar codes that direct cellular phones to specified web sites faster than black-and-white versions.

The firm acquired the domestic marketing rights to color QR codes developed by a South Korean company. The square handset-readable codes, which measure about 1 cm on each side, will be sold to businesses and individuals through Quin Land’s portal site. The firm estimates sales of 300 million yen ($2.9 million) in the first year.

The code comprises shapes, symbols and patterns in such colors as red, blue and green. When the image is read by cell phone, the handset is connected to a designated server, enabling the user to view web pages and images. The price of a single code for use by an individual for one year will be 1,000 yen ($9.7).

The only problem with this is, the code won't be universal. In order to make this work, every code has to mean the same thing to every one that clicks on it...or a universal identifier.

This is one of the reasons Cue Cat failed.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ubiquity is the magic word. Paperclick "WordRegistry" does this. Sign up your trademarked name and it activate that brand name regardless if its done via RFID, barcode, voice or what-have-you.

Oh, having several hundred millions of cell phones help, too. That's the ultimate ubiquitous item you can have. No wonder Cue Cat failed.

-kokonutguy