And you thought the iPhone was ahead of its game...

Technology is a rather spectacular subject. There are the advantages it brings, and there sure are the downfalls with its furtherance. Its latest advance, however, is something incredibly powerful, whether good or bad.

Companies like NeoMedia Technologies have undergone research and development to bring some of the most advance information retrieval to cellphones today. Picture yourself and other customers finding something you may want to purchase: a house, car, food/beverage product, or even service. What do you do? Well, depending on the product value, you usually research the product, whether it be its nutrition value, price, or performance. Usually, you may find yourself doing this on the Internet. Now, imagine yourself driving by a billboard that displays a message for a new car, pointing your cellphone at the sign, and receiving a text message that displays all of the product details (size, color options, price, monthly rates, etc). Intense, right?

Well the capabilities are already underway. McDonald's in Japan are allowing consumers to point their cellphones at a hamburger wrapper to acquire the nutritional information. They are even using cellphones to board airplanes, not paper tickets!

Think of the possibilities. You no longer will have to drive home back to your computer to do the research and the cool new product you saw while out. All of the retrieval will be done on spot.

In my opinion, it seems that the term "point-of-purchase," and even "impulse buys" have expanded their boundaries. It's like your product has a POP display wherever it stands for customers. People will most likely be more willing to make purchases with fewer waiting time in between their initial desire for the product, and the point it takes to decide.

Companies like Hewlett Packard are quick to jump on this new technology. They are teaming up with other companies, mainly Microsoft and Motorola , to further advance these capabilities and bring more convenience and power to the consumer. Advertisers will soon join this movement, once again changing the face of advertising and the way we make our purchases.

I agree with the article in saying that there will be a little difficulty in attracted consumers to truly utilize this option. Over time, people will probably lack the urge to go out and scan products and objects just for fun. Once the initial buzz of the new technology is over, advertisers are going to need to develop new ways to attract people to do this. People will not just randomly do it, you must provide an incentive or an intriguing factor.

I have been giving this some though and have come up with a couple ideas. First off, you could leave the customer wanting more with the actual physical message in the store. A sign for Axe Bodyspray may show a beautiful girl revealing a portion of her body, then the tag-line saying, "scan me to reveal more..." Or on a less riskier note, you could have a Pepsi POP say, "scan here to receive a promotional code to use at the register as a coupon."

The possibilities seem endless at this point. The only thing that worries me is the security precautions that may come with this new technology. For example, the use of the cellphones as plane tickets may just be a little too much. This could bring concerns as for forgery and other threats.

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