The move away from proprietary: Scanbuy makes it’s EZcode mobile barcode open

Mobile barcoder Scanbuy has announced that it’s going to make the specifications for it’s proprietary EZcode available to the public. All of the info necessary for encoding and decoding the 2d barcodes will be published for developers, merchants and producers to take advantage of.

EZcode was developed specifically for mobile phones, designed to have the maximum information in the smallest printable space.

From the release:

“Because EZcodes have quickly become a major force in the growth of mobile marketing, we believe it is now time to make this technology an open standard that everyone can use and benefit from,” said Jonathan Bulkeley, Chief Executive Officer of Scanbuy.  “Scanbuy has always worked to grow and develop the worldwide 2D barcode ecosystem and today’s announcement shows our commitment to creating a vibrant and open global marketplace.”

What we think?

This is a major step away from proprietary and towards open standard barcodes. I can’t help but think this is a reaction to NeoMedia’s winning of it’s patent battle. With that under it’s belt, NeoMedia is going to go from strength to strength. In order to compete with that, other barcodes will need mass take-up. It’s not like EZcode is a small player - a huge number of companies use and support EZcode in markets globally. Now is the right time to use that success, and push towards standardisation.