Telstra launches QR Codes in Australia
If you haven’t heard the buzz on QR Codes already, there will be half a million Telstra customer handsets with QR Code readers on their mobile phones from July 1, so it’s now a reality in Australia & the other carriers will most likely follow suit if it takes off like it has in Japan.
According to the Telstra press release, “This is the first time in the world that barcode readers have been automatically installed on mobile phones for free.”
The codes can be put on any surface from clothing, to packaged food and drinks, business cards, outdoor posters, so I guess the sky’s the limit and what’s exciting for digital marketers is that new level of interactivity that’s now possible in bringing products and services to life through digital content.
More information on this at Gizmodo.
Here’s the Telstra microsite with a demo if you’re Qrious!
Tuesday, July 8, 2008 at 11:31 am
Hi, sorry to ‘diss’ you on your own blog but this is not the first time in the world that QR readers have been installed on phones ‘at the factory’.
Lots of countries gloablly have heavy QR usage.
Maybe you want to change your post – this is the first time in Australia a QR reader has been deployed on handsets by a carrier.
QR codes have been used for some time (yes even in Australia) so nothing that Telstra is doing is ‘a worlds first’
For more background info check out http://www.Cognation.net/QR
Cheers,
Dean
Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 6:32 am
Thanks for letting me know Dean. I lifted that statement from the Telstra press release, so I assumed it would be factually correct.
http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/media/announcements_article.cfm?ObjectID=42778
Thanks for letting me know! I’ll take it out now.
Friday, July 11, 2008 at 5:58 am
lol yeh it’s not the only ‘marketing rhetoric’ telstra have used. QR are a great technology so i encourage trials and deployments but….
get good consulting advice in moving forward.
lol you might make a mistake like this telstra – sony bus shelter mistake
http://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/2656508531
Cheers,
Dean Collins
http://www.Cognation.net
Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 5:36 am
perhaps that is why Telstra qualified it by adding the term “…for free.” as opposed to technology costing something.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 5:18 am
What Telstra is doing is “automatically installing” the QR reader, aka without request for permission. But Telstra was sold without permission too, so this is nothing new at all. Sol Trujillo’s entry on Wikipedia has been mowed so hard that all references to him destroying US West have been omitted. So his plan to destroy Telstra isn’t a first for him either.