I blogged awhile back about cell (2D, including QR) barcodes. The Times published a piece about a pilot program at Case Western Reserve Univ using the technology… the result?
But interest in the pilot project, which started Feb. 1 and will run at least through May 15, has been tepid, according to students on campus, in part because of the cellphone fees associated with it. (It costs 2 cents or more to check when the next shuttle bus arrives, for instance.)
Two cents doesn’t sound like much, but it does add up, and more importantly acts as a disincentive when the value of the information doesn’t match the price + effort. This really makes me wonder about how the costs compare between the U.S. and countries where scanning is more popular. As far as I know, the only cost is for mobile time to connect to the Internet. I’d love to hear about prices abroad in the comments.