QR codes: made for consumers or made to fail?

Let's get serious: We've spoken (and by 'we've spoken' I mean I've written about and plenty of you guys have commented on or sent me articles) about smartphones and all the awesomeness they can do. There's been much discussion about how smartphones are infiltrating everyday life in the US, and how people are findings reasons and ways to increasingly adopt smartphones. This means that there's a lot they can do with them.

However, one thing that consumers don't seem to be doing with smartphones is scanning QR codes. This has sparked lots of debate, as people begin to see that marketers tend to like them more than consumers. I've been doing a lot of research recently looking at QR codes, and it seems that, even among the most tech proficient people, some people just don't understand QR codes or can't find tangible value.

Chadwick Martin Bailey, though, maintains that QR codes are (very slowly) gaining traction. According to their research, "half of smartphone users have now scanned a QR code at least once." That's not vey many, and hints that consumers just may not understand what they are, how they work, what they do, and, most importantly, what they can do for THEM.

It's not for lack of knowing they're something. "While just 21% of internet users surveyed had heard of QR codes before, more than four in five knew one when they saw one." This makes sense, since QR codes are increasingly everywhere; According to Nellymoser, "well over 90% of the top 100 magazines in the US have featured at least one mobile barcode since May 2011; as recently as November 2010, just 9% had. The proportion of ad pages in those magazines that now feature mobile barcodes hovers around 5%."

What do you think?

 

Comments

[EvanSpielberg]

One of the main problems I see is usability. There is no native QR scanning in iOS which means you need to download an app. Not necessarily hard but it creates some extra steps and usability questions. Now if I"m on a subway platform I need to get out my phone, unlock it, line it up, let it scan, let it error out because I don't have internet, then remember to look it up later. That's if I can do all of that before my train comes. If iOs(Or Android, or WP7, or etc) had a native ability to scan QR codes from a home or lock screen(like iOS 5 added for camera functionality) I think you would greatly improve the usability.