Mobile barcodes on TV and on Sony Ericsson with Scanbuy

2d barcoding expert Scanbuy, as busy as ever, has released two pieces of news today. First, it is powering a new mobile barcode service from Latin American mobile operator Claro Chile. Second, the Scanlife barcode reader will be coming pre-loaded on Sony Ericsson camera phones.

What does Scanlife do?

Very briefly: Scanlife is a downloadable application for mobile devices with cameras. It allows the device to scan a printed barcode, and then automatically take an action on that barcode. For example, it might take the browser on the device to a specific URL, or download a particular image. Essentially, it allows published materials to become digitally interactive. The Scanlife application reads all the major 1d and 2d codes, and works with all the popular (and unpopular!) mobile operating systems, including Java.

Claro Chile:

Claro Chile is owned by América Móvil, and is launching Codigo Claro (”Claro codes”) with two TV spots:

Codigo Claro 1 from Cian Gomo on Vimeo.

Codigo Claro 2 from Cian Gomo on Vimeo.

As you can see, the ads are one part launch, one part tutorial. It’s part of the beauty of mobile barcodes, that you can show them being used so easily. As part of this deal, Claro Chile will also be pre-loading the ScanLife app on new phones.

Sony Ericsson:

The mobile joint-venture between Sony and Ericsson has annouced that it will be pre-loading the Scanlife mobile barcode app on its camera phones. That’s really about all the details that have been released for that story. If this blanket statement is taken at face value, then we are to believe that Sony Ericsson will be rolling Scanlife out on all of its cameraphones globally from now on. And from what Scanbuy CEO Jonathan Bulkeley is saying, that may be what’s happening: “Scanbuy and our partners are building a global infrastructure to make mobile barcode scanning completely ubiquitous and easy for the end-user.”

What we think?

Someone recently declared that Scanbuy had lost the Latin American market. I think this pretty much shows the opposite. Codigos aren’t just being deployed in Chile - last week we covered a Scanbuy deal with Frito Lays in Mexico.