Why QR Codes will Die
After publishing a blog post a couple of weeks ago – QR Code Use Explodes – I discovered that they’ll likely die as quickly as they’ve grown.
As I watched hundreds of geeks clammoring around girls in tight shirts walking the sidewalk at SXSW a couple weeks ago, I began wondering what the fuss was all about. The women were wearing t-shirts with QR codes strategically located on them, along with the phrase “Scan Me.” I’m not sure whether the guys were taking pictures or scanning the bar codes on their chests, but it truely highlighted how gimmicky QR code technology can be.
A few days ago, Google announced that it would no longer include QR codes on its Google Places window signs, and would instead embed NFC chips in them (like they did during a test in Portland in Dec.). This move by a major player signals the move toward chip technology rather than scanning.
While NFC chips have been promoted as a digital wallet, they can also direct the phone to pull up a website or an app. I believe this use is safer and could promote more initial adoption than using it as a digital wallet
NFC chips are relatively cheap, so cost should not be a major factor in the move toward this new technology. Having used both technologies, I must say that it is about 10 times quicker and easier to scan your phone over a reader than it is to open an app and try to scan a bar code. As this technology is embedded in more and more smartphones (as it was in the Google Nexus S phone), this will become more of the norm.
I don’t believe QR codes have reached their tipping point yet in the United States. If NFC technology can race ahead (espcially if it’s embedded in the iPhone 5), it will allow us to skip ahead of the heavy QR code culture in Asia and go straight to NFC adoption.
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