Just read this over at Barcode News which reports  a unique new use for QR Codes, which just goes to show that confidence is growing in this developing area. A New York website, called Carcle.com has been set up to assist people in sharing, renting or selling their cars by using QR Codes. The Carcle.com website is a lesson in simplicity itself, web designers take note. Visitors to the website simply tyoe in their registration plate number, and other details, after which the site generates a QR Code in the form of an adhesive ‘sticker’ which can be stuck on the car.

Anyone who scans the barcode will get access to a page on the website containing all the information about that vehicle, whether its for sale, for rent or for share, some photos and contact information, making it a quick and simple form of advertising with a very contemporary slant.

Anyone who has been in the market for a car, seen one in the street with an ad in the window, but not had the time or a pen and paper to take note, will appreciate that the beauty of this idea lies in its simplicity and ease of use. Bringing all the necessary and relevant information immediately into the hands of an interested buyer. If you don’t get the chance to scan the code, simpy use your phone to take a picture of the licence plate, then go to the website and type it in and you’ll get the info all the same. The convenience of this kind of transaction is likely to expand over the coming year – why not head on over to Barcode News or Carcle and find out more.

Hey, I know I’ve already written my obligatory 2d barcode trends for 2011 post, but I just read a post over at the ShareSquare blog entitled ‘Will 2011 be the year QR codes explode in the USA?‘ which goes into far more detail and expands on many of the issues I mentioned. Take a look, it’s a great read.

The writer suggests there is about a 50/50 split in market share between smartphones and feature phones, with the iPhone and G1 as the main representatives of smartphones in the US,  but that smartphones, and therefore 2d mobile phone technology, are set to overtake the feature phone market in 2011.

2d barcode technology in Japan was able penetrate the market far quicker, simply because the market was dominated by one wireless carrier which decided to support the technology. In the Us, and the west in general, this simply couldn’t happen and so the uptake has been far slower. But the writer suggests that since mobile operating systems have now become the new ‘gatekeepers of handset functionality’ there are a whole bunch of barcode document scanning app for iphone entering the market. ShareSquare also reports that Redlaser (click on the name to find out more) estimates over 5 million installations on iPhone, and Google’s barcode scanner is to be pre-installed on new versions of Android. And Blackberry will have a QR code scanner in the new version of BBM.

The post goes on to discuss the defragmentation of 2d Barcode standards and the ‘Social Tipping Point’ as factors in the take up of 2d barcode technologies. It’s a great read, why not go and visit the site.