Bar Codes Ride Again—on Mobile Phones

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To promote Repo Men, Universal Pictures embedded bar codes from startup Occipital in 30,000 posters in cities including New York and Los Angeles on Feb. 1. When scanned with an Apple (AAPL) iPhone, the codes prompt the phone to run a short video ad promoting the film. Consumers can also use Occipital software to scan bar codes of products in retail stores to get prices on the same items from comparison-shopping sites like TheFind.com.

Major Hurdles

Companies hoping to use the technology widely face big hurdles. Different codes sometimes require different types of software. For instance, Scanbuy's software can't read Microsoft bar codes. "The problem is, [the market] has been fragmented, and it's not well executed," says Neil Strother, practice director at consultant ABI Research. Phones without autofocus cameras may not be able to read certain codes.

To research the technology, Forrester Research (FORR) analyst Julie Ask scanned a promotion created by JagTag for the upcoming Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, due on newsstands Feb. 9. But she did not receive any photos back via multimedia message, as promised. JagTag blames congestion on AT&T's (T) network. "We are seeing no issues" with multimedia messaging, AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel says. "Tens of thousands" of cell-phone users have successfully downloaded the content every week since the campaign began running in January, says Dudley Fitzpatrick, CEO of JagTag.

Scanbuy is trying to work out kinks. On Feb. 4, Scanbuy unveiled a way for phones to read bar codes and receive content without downloading any software. Last year, Sony Ericsson began preloading Scanbuy's software on its phones in various markets outside the U.S. Sprint Nextel (S), the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier, last year started preloading the software onto select phones, such as the Samsung Reclaim.

"When we talked to a lot of agencies and brands, mobile bar codes have been something they've been interested in," says Kevin McGinnis, a director at Sprint.

Kharif is a reporter for Bloomberg BusinessWeek in Portland, Ore.

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