Monday, February 26, 2007

Some Mobile Players Meet On Barcode

From FT.com Mobile Groups Study Barcode Plan (subscription)

Leading mobile communications companies are due to meet in London on Tuesday to consider a plan that would help turn handsets into personal barcode readers – a move that could stimulate the first big mobile-driven advertising market.



While I think it's great that there's some initiative to adopt a specific code and code reading platform, I think the PWC companies that are actually getting their platform adopted by the handets and wireless carriers should have been invited to participate.

Other companies involved in the field say signs of strong consumer adoption of the technology in recent months in Japan and South Korea have stimulated a rash of experiments elsewhere in the world that is likely to make the technology widespread, regardless of the standards push.

In one of the widest-ranging initiatives to date,DuPont last week said it would make 2D codes available on the cans, bottles and many other types of packaging that it supplies to consumer product companies around the world.

I don't think the potential of this licensing agreement has been digested yet.

I explain why here .

Thanks to early work by carriers such as DoCoMo in Japan and China Mobile, “there are already some pretty basic standards that everyone can live by”, said Jonathan Bulkeley of Scanbuy, whose technology is being used by DuPont.

The HP/Publicis group, known as the Mobile Codes Consortium , hoped to reach basic agreements on technology within a year.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wasn't there more to this article?

What could have made you leave out the rest?

Curious?

No Name said...

I highlighted the parts I felt were pertinent.

Incidentally I was interviewed and contributed to this story.

Click on the link to read the entire story.