Prinovis and NeoMedia Print media adds 2D barcodes

NeoMedia and Prinovis have entered into a strategic partnership.
Wait – what is in Prinovis?
Prinovis is a German business formed in 2005.  It is a merger of Gruner + Jahr, Axel Springer and Arvato. … Or at least of all their printing operators.

What is NeoMedia?
NeoMedia is a mobile barcode solutions company with a HQ in Germany and offices in the UK. NeoMedia provides 2D mobile barcode management.

From the press release:
“Mobile barcoding is breathing new life into print mediums and NeoMedia is proud to deliver this exciting capability to the marketplace. Prinovis is adding exceptional value to their customers by turning every printed piece they deliver into a measurable, interactive experience. What advertiser doesn’t want this capability?” states Iain McCready, CEO of NeoMedia.
“Mobile barcoding allows Prinovis customers to run smarter, more successful dialogue and loyalty oriented marketing programs. NeoMedia’s tools make executing barcode activities easy and intuitive. We are able to provide a lot of upside to our customers without a lot of additional effort,” commented Thorsten Thiel CEO, from Prinovis.
What we think?
Print media needs to go digital and this is a good move from the print powerhouse Prinovis.

This is also a good move for NeoMedia because it needs to take bigger steps to secure the mobile barcode market in Germany.  If I think back to an interview with arch rival Jonathan Bulkeley from ScanBuy he said that ScanBuy had a foothold in Spain, Mobile Tag in France but Germany was still up for grabs.  With 80 million consumers and a HQ in Germany – NeoMedia needs to put its flag down fast.

But more than that we are starting to see how companies are stopping grappling for the same business. Scanbuy is focusing on less traditional media with operators and Twitter; UpCode is still eyeing up the enterprise and NeoMedia seems to have focused on serving traditional media first.