Google vs. Microsoft: Let the 2D Mobile Barcode Wars Begin

In my last post, I covered the types of information that a 2D bar code can store, and why that is cool for customers, advertisers and publishers alike. I also introduced the Wilson CCC Conjecture, or the idea that consumers need devices that are convenient, capable, and connected, for any type of mobile advertising -- including 2D barcodes -- to proliferate.

Since my first installment, I’ve seen a lot of movement in the barcode space, as marketers are starting to focus their attention and money on this technology. As an example, Calvin Klein has put up huge billboards in New York and Los Angeles, replacing its iconic images of scantily-clad, denim-wearing models, with decidedly unsexy, boxy, red QR codes. The tagline is “Get It Uncensored,” and when you point your barcode-enabled mobile phone camera at the billboard ... well, I don’t want to be a spoiler, go download a free QR app and try it yourself here. This is the type of activity that will push 2D barcodes into the mainstream.

As barcodes go mainstream, there are dominant formats emerging as the standard. Early efforts arose from small startups that have created proprietary formats, but the two that have gained the most traction are from companies that have deep pockets: Google's QR Codes* and Microsoft's Tags.                    

QR CODE             TAG

The images above represent my vCard (an electronic business card) as interpreted by QR Code and Tag. Why might one format succeed over the other? Open vs. Closed, respectively, is one answer.  VHS vs. Betamax is probably the other.

Google's QR Codes vs. Microsoft's Tags

Open: Google has made their development efforts open-source so that developers can both create and interpret the QR Codes. The company has also integrated QR Codes into its small business Place Pages, and given business owners a QR Code poster that will allow passersby to scan and get information on that business instantly. If you are an Android device user, QR Codes are popularly used to take a consumer straight to a downloadable application, ringtones and other content from the Android Market.

Closed: Microsoft, alternatively, has decided to keep their efforts proprietary. There is no mobile software development kit (SDK) available for developers to build applications that could use the Tag concept, thus hampering acceptance of the format. While anyone can generate a Tag from the Microsoft Tag site, a developer has to login to obtain information on individual Tag usage. Developers also can't create their own custom system for managing the creation and eventual reporting of the Tag campaign. There is even rumination that Microsoft will at some point charge for some of the Tag features.

VHS: Google’s efforts will bring widespread adoption of the QR Code standard.

Betamax:  Microsoft spent a lot of time and money creating the Tag.  It is technically a superior design; it offers incredible error correction (image can be scanned upside down, shadows can be on image etc.) but the lack adoption will make it a niche product at best.

Regardless of the format that wins, this is an interesting space to watch. My prediction is that 2D barcodes will become as ubiquitous as web addresses with the instant gratification via your mobile phone, so expect to see them everywhere you look in the near future -- from magazine ads, to movie screens, to soda cans.

*Note: The Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave developed the QR Code.  It is defined and published as an ISO standard - free from any license.

Convenient, Capable and Connected: Why Today's Mobile Consumer is Ready for the 2D Barcode Boom

Note: This is a repost from an article I wrote at DIGIDAY:DAILY

First, a quick technology primer: 

Barcodes are an efficient way to store and retrieve product data — and most people have seen or interacted with 1D (one-dimensional) bar codes. These linear barcodes visually represent data as a set of parallel lines, and are currently in use on products everywhere from the grocery store to the book store. 

2D (two-dimensional) barcodes are different, in that they use a pattern of geometric shapes to represent data. This new visual structure offers a dense array for data storage and error correction, and represents the next generation of scannable data.

So what’s the big deal — why are these codes so cool? 

A 2D barcode can be scanned with a device that nearly every consumer owns today — a mobile phone. They can also singularly contain different types of information:

• Calendar Event
• Contact / vCard
• Email Address
• GeoLocation
• Phone Number
• SMS
• URL

2D codes can be placed almost anywhere — literally. Find them on t-shirts and Facebook pages, on the Times Square JumboTron, to table tents in bars and even in tattoos. These codes can trigger specific actions — a streaming video can start to play, a location can be displayed on a map, a number can be dialed, or a web-page launched — right in the mobile phone that a person uses to scan them with. With one click of the camera, 2D barcodes connect the physical world to the ethereal world.

But if they’re that much better, why haven’t they become more mainstream?

One word: Hardware. To get the majority of consumers to access these codes, they need devices that are Convenient, Capable and Connected (I call this “Wilson’s CCC Conjecture”).

Efforts in the past to get people to adopt barcode scanning failed because the consumer was expected to purchase a scanning device (or send away for a free one), the device performed only one specific action, and it had to be tethered to a computer. Clearly this situation violates the Conjecture and hence doomed the early industry to failure.

Why will the consumer engage now and what’s changed?

The advancement of the mobile phone has delivered the 3 Cs of the Conjecture. With a typical handset’s auto-focus camera, capable operating system and wireless access, all of the elements needed for consumer adoption have been satisfied. Now, there are millions of potential scanners right in consumers’ hands. 

Most handsets are either preloaded with a scanning application or the user is just an application download away from having one.  Scanner ubiquity is nearly upon us and with that the risk for marketers and advertisers will reach acceptable tolerance levels (read: money will be spent on 2D bar code campaigns).

In my next post, I’ll detail the differences between the plethora of bar code options currently in the marketplace, including the more open “QR codes” and Microsoft’s proprietary “Tag” codes.