QR codes on TV

I'm seeing more "quick response" codes on billboards and on magazine pages. I admit I haven't seen any yet embedded into TV commercials, but apparently Waitrose, a U.K. supermarket chain, is doing so. As always these days, the business value is to turn a "non-interactive" message into an interactive session by redirecting users to a webpage.

Waitrose now putting Android QR codes on its TV adverts

Tablets Cannibalizing Both Laptops and Netbooks

Logic would suggest that tablet devices partly represent a new product category, but also partly will cannibalize some other related products, such as e-readers, laptops or netbooks.

Conventional wisdom suggests that, to the extent there is product substitution, tablets will cannibalize netbooks, and a new survey by Google suggests there is some truth to that notion. About 9 percent of laptop shoppers, and 19 percent of notebook shoppers, indicated they at least considered buying a tablet instead.

One suspects there will be stronger substitution patterns over time as lower-cost tablets appear in the market. Looking only at device cost, and not capabilities, many consumers might conclude that a netbook or laptop costs $100 to $300 less than a tablet, thus providing the better combination of value and price.

A change in tablet retail price could change behavior, though, encouraging a wider range of notebook and netbook buyers to consider getting a tablet instead.

Tablets Cannibalizing Both Laptops and Netbooks

Yahoo To Launch Own Business Video Show

Yahoo will significantly increase its original video offerings in 2011 with a new business show on Yahoo Finance, scripted entertainment programming and with news video in a number of vertical areas, say Erin McPhearson, VP & Head of Originals and Video Programming, Yahoo!

Beet.TV: Yahoo's Big Video Plans: New Business Show, Scripted Entertainment and News Verticals

Why U.S. Has More Web and App Firms than EU

Large internal markets make a difference in most businesses, and Web apps, service and software companies are no exception, one might argue.

14% of wireless subs have 3G, and here comes 4G?

New fourth-generation wireless networks are the new thing in the infrastructure part of the mobile business, but TeleGeography notes that only 14 percent of the global wireless subscriber base is now connected to a 3G network, with the regional figure varying between 35 percent in Western Europe to just six percent in Africa.

You might wonder what that might mean for 4G penetration rates. Networks using 3G began to be deployed in 2001 and 2002, meaning nine to 10 years have passed. In general terms, that is about the time entirely-new generations of wireless technology tend to be deployed. New networks get deployed roughly once a decade.

Partly by design, partly by happenstance, each generation of networks has had slightly-different lead applications. The first generation was an analog, voice-only medium. Networks built on 2G added text messaging and later email. The 3G networks originally were thought to be a platform for broadband-related new applications, but wound up becoming a way to use the mobile Web and connect PCs to laptops and other mobile devices.

Aside from offering significantly-higher bandwidth, how 4G will develop remains a work in progress. Most now suspect it will be streaming video that winds up being the unique "killer" app for 4G.

But it is worth noting that after roughly a decade, about a third of all users in developed countries actually are on a 3G network, and most users still use a 2G network.

At 30 September 2010 there were 694 million 3G users scattered across the world, compared to a total of 5.12 billion wireless subscriptions.

One might therefore suspect that although the marketing hype will be about 4G, the revenue is going to be driven by 2G and 3G for quite some time.

14% of wireless subs connected to 3G networks: CommsUpdate : TeleGeography Research

FCC Plans Dec. 21 "Net Neutrality" Vote

If you didn't have the context, it would be hard to glean from this formal statement just what the new rules will contain. Even if you have the context, the really-important issues are not the principles, but the implementation.

And then there is the nagging, sure to be tested in the courts issue of where the Federal Communications Commission has the legal authority to issue such rules.

read more here

QR Codes: Another Example of New Technology Adoptiion Process

New technologies nearly always are envisioned in the framework of some older technology. "Horseless carriage" is one example. People commonly used to refer to a refrigerator as an "ice box." The telephone once was seen as a way to send music to people.

The point is that truly-significant innovations rarely are fully understood at first. There is a period of trial-and-error where people try to figure out what to do with the new tools. Then there is a period where people just swap the new tools for the old tools.

Finally there is a transformation when wholly-new systems are built around the new technologies. But that easily can take a decade or more, though we seem used to the idea that some technologies can propagate faster than that.

Some of you might remember that there was an explosion of business investment in information technology throughout the 1980s that seemed not to move the needle on productivity measures. The measurable gains didn't seem to appear widely until the 1990s.

Some argue it took that long for entire information-manipulating processes to be redesigned for digital appliances and networks before the gains could be reaped.

Quick response codes (QR codes), two-dimensional barcodes, provide a recent example. Basically, when a user takes a picture of such a code, a smartphone or other suitably-equipped device can translate the code into a web address, and take the user to that site.

Some see this as a way to make non-connected printed materials (magazine pages, posters, billboards, t-shirts, hats) "digital." But it will probably take some time before we all figure out what QR codes really are good for.

One example: when it comes to exchanging contact details, business cards are still the method of choice for most business people.

Some think barcoded objects will replace business cards. But one can think of all sorts of good reasons why human interactions in settings where business cards are used are not conducive to use of QR codes as a substitute.

People trading cards don't know each other. They also are face to face in settings where holding up a camera and taking a picture is physically or socially undesirable.

Cocktail parties, inside meeting rooms, offices or exhibit stands are places where somebody might be asked for, contact information.

You might say the code could simply be printed on a hat, shirt or placard, but you quickly will understand that this is a non-viable channel. Few people probably want to broadcast contact details and fewer want to wear geeky clothing implying they are a "product" or "object," which is the inescapable notion.

One can make an argument that a QR code, printed on a card, will save a bit of keystroking when a recipient later can take a photo of the code, pull up a website and then cut and paste the information into a contact manager.

But if you have to carry and distribute the cards anyway, that isn't going to "replace" anything.

QR codes as a replacement for business cards might provide some value to some people. It hardly seems to provide obvious and immediate value for most people, though.

It does nicely illustrate the process of technology adoption, though. It is something people have to do, and not every conceivable application case will prove to be long lasting.

QR codes make business card information digital