More and more, people are moving towards technologies that afford the user mobility and portability. The most shining example of this behavior is our proclivity for cellular phones. Not to mention, iPods, PSPs, laptops, etc.

People are now using their mobile gadgets for entertainment, business, work, leisure — practically in many aspects of their lives. I believe it’s come to a point where we probably won’t survive without our electronic devices.

Notice that pattern of dots and squares on this post? (There’s also another one on the sidebar.) It’s a two-dimensional barcode, which contains the URL of one of my blogs. If your mobile phone has a built-in barcode reader, scan the image and see what it contains.

If you don’t have a barcode reader, you can point your phone’s browser to http://reader.kaywa.com and download the free software. Many camera phones by Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola are supported.

What can we use 2D barcodes for?

The most obvious is for inventory purposes. As with one-dimensional barcodes that commercial establishments use to keep track of their merchandise, 2D barcodes can also be deployed for the same requirements. What makes the latter much better is their data capacity. The barcode you see on this page is called a Qr code, and it can store up to 250 characters of information. And, readers are now readily available.

This opens up a whole range of applications for 2D barcodes.

In Japan, magazine publishers use Qr codes to store their issues’ tables of contents, or promotional texts. The machine-readable code is displayed on the cover page so that users can scan it with their mobile phones and, without having to browse the magazine, find out what’s inside.

Here’s a scenario. Let’s say you have a company newsletter that you distribute publicly. You could print a 2D barcode on the front page and it would contain your company’s website address, a brief marketing blurb, and even your business phone number.

You could also have a 2D barcode printed on your business card. Mobile phones that are able to read barcodes can also save barcode-embedded telephone numbers (and other contact details) into their address books.

Generating barcodes is a cinch, too. Do a search for “2D barcode generator” on Google, and you’ll get a good number of links. Here’s one: http://qrcode.kaywa.com.

Do you see the possibilities now?

If you want to keep up with new trends in the market, keep in mind that in the Information Age, data portability is the key to success. If you allow your information to be available on the go (i.e., mobile and portable), you’re on the right track.