A new study by Juniper Research has forecast that nearly 15 billion tickets will be delivered to subscribers’ mobile devices worldwide by 2014, compared to just over two billion this year - I'm not the smartest guy in the world but that seems like considerable growth to me - an indication of a massive trend developing perhaps??

Mobile barcodes are "cellphone friendly", unique identifiers that can be read by the majority of mobile devices. They allow for the cumbersome, aging, environmentally unfriendly, paper ticketing method to be bypassed and for an electronic barcode to be issued by the rail, bus and air transport companies instead of a physical ticket.

Howard Wilcox, the author of an article on the Juniper Research website says that "The potential of mobile ticketing does not stop there. Major cinema chains, concert organisers and sports teams are latching on to the commercial viability, which is driven by both cost savings and the up-sell revenue potential – not to mention convenience for the user. There are also new entrants from a variety of angles such as apps start-ups and mobile commerce providers seeking to grasp the opportunities they can see."

Opportunities..isn't that the stuff everyone is saying they don't have? Each time a barcode is made, scanning opportunities are created - just like that! Make barcodes - create opportunity - miraculous!

Created by the British designer Colin O' Dowd, the "Beep" mug has a fully functional UPC barcode integrated into its design.  Although this functionality impressively negates the need for barcoded packaging, it is the fact that we can now use our scanners to dispatch cups of coffee in the office, that has prompted our desire to get our grubby paws on a bunch of these mugs.

F: "who has been using my mug?"
R: "It's not your mug Fido"
F: "Actually Rufus, it is!"
R: "No it's not"
F: "Yes.."
P: "Now now guys - just scan it!" - Beep -  "oh look it's actually mine"
F: "Then where is my mug?"
P: "The barcode tracking system has it last scanned at 8:03:01AM in the wash basin area - maybe check there first."

- barcode everything we always say!

In order to get an official barcode and sell your trade items (a product or service) in retail globally, you need to be registered with GS1 South Africa to obtain a bank of numbers. These numbers will include a Company Prefix which is uniquely assigned to your company. The company prefix is, depending on the range of numbers that you applied for, either the first ten, nine, eight or seven digits of the thirteen digit Global Trade Item Number (IN). The rest of the numbers in the barcode are assigned internally depending on the product type and service relationships.

It is important to remember that this only relates to the retail environment and that you can use barcode numbers of your choice for internal use.  Any combination of numbers and or text can be used in barcoding for Asset management, materials handling and all kinds of item tracking and control - you literally can barcode anything! We recently helped a client barcode her husband so that she could better monitor his extramural activities (obviously we are only illustrating a point and this is not a true story...we would never use barcodes for such evil...)