Have you scanned a quick response (QR) code lately? If you're like most people, probably not. According to Adobe’s 2013 Mobile Consumer Survey, a mere 37% of young adults and 32% of those who could be described as middle aged have interacted with a QR code in the past three months – which is fewer than in 2012. Don't write off QR codes just yet, though. Considering that 2014 has been coined the year of mobile thanks to device numbers cresting 2 billion globally, it could just be that the world is finally ready for QR codes.
The Future Of QR Codes In The Year Of Mobile
After all, QR codes have actually been around since 1994, invented by Japanese auto parts manufacturer Denso Wave, a subsidiary of Toyota, to track production and scan components. Fast forward to 2010 and suddenly they're all over t-shirts, billboards, buses and even produce stickers. The problem was that most people never knew quite what to make of them, at one point
they were almost dead. To scan a QR code, you needed to download an app and then what? Consumers young and old were too quick to disregard QR codes as something akin to bar codes – useful for retailers, maybe, but fine to ignore.
