In an effort to bridge the gap between print and digital, NeoReader has announced that their 2D barcode scanning software is available on BlackBerry. The app allows camera-toting BlackBerrys to read Data Matrix, QR code, Aztec code, EAN, UPC and Code 128 with their mobile, which can do a lot of things depending on the code. Their example pulls up a mobile web page for a bus stop, which lets you check bus times and purchace tickets by way of SMS delivering another code which is then read on the bus. BeeTagg’s trying to do something similar, which isn’t suprising since there are so few mobiles out there that don’t have some kind of camera on it, but it’s a tricky getting folks to adopt.
Even when the app is free to end-users, service providers have to invest both in printing the codes as well as educating their target audience about the technology. Getting ordinary folks to actually load the software on is a pretty big hurdle. It seems like for something like this to really take off, it should be build right in with the camera software so end-users can enjoy the benefits right away and enterprises can focus on using the barcodes in innovative ways.
[via WebWire]