Forbes highlights what's next for mobile services.
U.S. Importing Asian Cellular Sophistication
Japan and South Korea have spent years pushing innovation on the third screen, enabling phones to act as wallets, TVs and advertising vehicles. U.S. mobile operators, meanwhile, have focused on expanding and improving their service networks,
sticking to basic services, such as text messaging.That's changing. Over the next six months, U.S. carriers are gearing up to launch several waves of new cellular services.
Mark Donovan, a senior analyst at M:Metrics
is more bullish on two-dimensional barcodes.
A hit in Japan, the codes are being used to build a bridge between physical items—from roadside billboards to magazine print ads—to the virtual world. Their square, black-and-white, mottled patterns hold about 10 times more data than the familiar, skinny barcodes and can be printed on paper in ink or displayed as pixels on a screen.
Next year, the codes will get their first wide release in America.
ScanBuy , a New York-based wireless commerce developer, has convinced Sprint to do a six-month trial of the technology beginning as early as January. Other major carriers are considering making the technology available on their phones and networks, too
