Response to Jackie Cook's Post...

“What do you think the future is for barcode scanners? Do you think they will become advanced enough for everyday use or will they fade out again?”

I feel it all depends on how the user can scan the barcodes. Like you stated from the article, “the newly designed product was too clunky”, and “companies exercising CueCat found that it was not portable or easy and actually in some cases they believed it was more trouble than just doing a search through a Web address”. Yes, technology has improved since 2000 to the point where we can now scan codes from our phones; but what if customers do not have a phone with that capability? Do they resort to the old scanner from 2000? Will the technology be universal for all cell phones or will the companies only worry about making it accessible for certain models/brands?

Technology is not my only concern with barcodes, marketing the barcode process can also be a downside. I never knew about scanning barcodes before reading the article and I would highly doubt I was the only one. Potential or current customers not knowing about this technology could hurt the companies that are using barcodes. CueCat was released back in the year 2000 and 10 years later it still has not caught on. Maybe because people do not know enough about it or maybe people just prefer to wait until they get home to get online, I don’t know.

I feel there are still problems with using barcodes and until they get resolved barcodes will fade out again. What’s your take on the situation?