The correlation between mobile phone technology and QR Codes is undeniable. According to Sybase, a SAP mobile intelligence company, 1.2 billion mobile phones were sold in 2009. From January to March 2010 alone, 314.7 million phones were sold, 54.3 million of which were smartphones i.e. 19 per cent of all phones sold were smartphones. The percentage of smartphone users is growing every month. In 2010, mobile phone subscribers surpassed 5 billion, 15% of users came were from China. Considering that the global population is 6.8 billion, this means that over 70 per cent of the world’s populations use mobile phones. Children are more likely to own a mobile phone than a book. According to the National Literary Trust (2008), 85 per cent of them own a mobile phone whereas only 73 per cent have books at home (Source: National Literary Trust). In the US, 9 out of ten of every man, woman and child have a mobile phone.
According to Comscore in 2010, 32 percent of the adult population in the UK used smartphones. This is significant due to their ability to scan and read QR Codes. 3GVision found that in the fourth quarter of 2010, the UK was the seventh largest user of QR Codes.
The extraordinary growth of mobile phones and the more recent iPhone and Androids suggests two prominent trends for businesses to follow:
The correlation between mobile phone technology and QR Codes is undeniable.
Firstly, people like to connect and explore markets, engage in social networks and prefer easy and convenient technologies. There is no negative trend in the use of mobile phones and the popularity of smartphones is growing every month. So, more and more QR codes will have to be generated and scanned. Therefore ample growth will be seen in the use of QR Code related technology e.g., QR scanners, generators etc and the way consumers access content via their smartphones is likely to increase.
Secondly applications for business are still not as diversified or developed so the technology is currently evolving. Though the first smartphone (IBM Simon) was launched back in 1994, it was not until the launch of the iPhone on January 9, 2007 in San Francisco that the appeal of this type of mobile phone was obvious. The total number of iPhones sold so far is around 59,634,000. In the first three days of Apple selling iPhone 4, 1.7 million units were sold. According to the Aberdeen Group (2009), by end of 2010, 53 per cent of companies will have deployed iPhones to their staff. This could mean that an increasing number of companies want to capitalize on the benefits QR Codes can provide in terms of interactive communication.
Finally, the evolution of the “App” industry will also assist in moving more and more people to using their smartphones to work, socialise and buy online via their mobile phones. Interestingly, by 2015 smartphones will be the chief instruments of online shopping (Nielsen) which means that QR Codes could provide the quickest route to businesses’ products and services. Whatever phone you have there is an App for it. In July 2008, Apple launched the App Store. It launched with 500 Apps; in 2009, $4.2 billion was spent on Apps. By June 2010, 225,000+ Apps were available (Source: Apple January 2010).Over 3 billion Apps have been downloaded to date. In March 2010, Google launched a store for business apps. In 2013, an estimated $29.5 billion will be spent on apps (Source Gartner 2010). In October 2008, Google launched the Android. It is now the no. 4 Smartphone after iPhone and is growing 886 per cent per year.
Businesses can learn from these trends by researching the market and developing business applications of their own which can easily be adapted to the new mobile phones. The use of QR Codes in business and social life will, unlike some cynics, continue to expand. We face interesting times ahead.
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