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Google QR Codes Admonsters

Russell Buckley declares that QR Codes are dead and predicts the dawn of Google contact lenses

By Gordon Young, Editor

May 15, 2012 | 3 min read

Russell Buckley, who many see as the 'godfather of mobile' gave a rapid fire round up of key technologies he believes will disappear as mobile technology continues its exponential growth.

Buckley, who is a former global chairman of the Mobile Marketing Association, and chief marketing officer at Eagle Eye Solutions, gave a list to an Admonsters OPS conference that included:

1) The camera: there are now more cameras in mobile devices than were ever made as standalone products. The camera will go the same way as camera film.

2) The games console: this fact will prove hugely disruptive to the big games company, but there is no doubt mobile is poised to take this market.

3) The iPod: Apple is not immune from the monster it helped create. Even Steve Jobs admitted his beloved iPod's days are numbered.

4) Landline telephone: As networks improve, the Wichita Lineman man will be soon heading for the dole queue.

5) The calculator: this product has not changed in 15 years, as manufacturers acknowledge that mobile will take this market.

6) Sat Nav: looks like Tom Tom's famous product will soon be lost in the wilderness, as map apps improve.

7) The Hotel Wake-Up Call: Hotels still quaintly ask if guest require a wake-up call. Why, when everybody has an alarm clock in their pocket?

8) Locks: we're not there yet, but mobiles will soon open doors - literary and metaphorically.

9) Coupons: why cut out newspapers coupons, when you can collect them and redeem them on digital device?

10) Money - and not because of the economic tsunami coming this way from Greece. Mobile payment is on its way, and industry insiders will be watching the development of the iPhone 5 with interest. You can assume Apple will be major players on the mobile payment front.

11) PCs: mobile will do to the PC, what PCs did to the mainframe. Desktops will give way to desk space.

12) QR codes. This is an intermediate technology, which will be rendered redundant by face recognition type technology. The discipline doesn't help itself - what is the point of putting them on trains?

But what about the distant future? How will the market look in 2036, for example? Buckley predicts mobiles will be the size of a red blood cell, and we will all be walking around wearing Google contact lenses, providing us with data, and augmented reality on the go. Some, rather quaintly, might use them to see the real world.

Google QR Codes Admonsters

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