While I'm no longer sanguine about Neomedia/Paperclick as a company, the core idea of using the camera phone to read bar codes and get information from the Internet is compelling. Kaywa, for example, is gaining some traction with QR codes in Europe.
Within this context, Wireless Watch Japan's tidbit about McDonalds printing QR codes on sandwich wrappers with links to nutrition information is interesting. What else could be printed on soon-to-be trash?
Oh - and as far as Neomedia is concerned, I'm largely concerned about their current business practices. Startups should not go on consolidation sprees, and they especially should not purchase companies with no relation to their own business (auto painting?!?!?). They don't seem to be making any news on their "core" business beyond announcing something that seems a rehash of announcements from two years ago. I'm worried that they are moving to become a patent holding company, with no real operations, planning on suing those who become successful in the space.
Mrs. Ballard,
With all due respect, this post is truly laughable.
hahahahahaha !!
Thanks, I needed a good laugh for tonight
Get a clue please
Michael
Michael,
I would appreciate some clarification. Is the whole post laughable? Which parts in particular really made you chortle?
Barbara
Mrs Ballard,
I don’t think laughable is the correct description. I would say your confused about NeoMedia, and insecure in your beliefs of how mobile services, devices, and software are evolving. I understand your trying to make a living, and perhaps you may have done, or tried to do business with NeoMedia in the past, but you are not up to date on their current activities. Or perhaps I’m naive, and you are aware of recent strides by NeoMedia and their QODE platform, and you have chosen to dis them, because of relationships you have with their competitors. Now if what I have just suggested is totally wrong, then the only other explanation that I can think of, for this poorly written article, would be that you relied on second hand information, and you assumed it was correct. If you ever watched the old tv show ” The Odd Couple”, you understand what happens when you “assume” things.
I wish you would contact NeoMedia, and write an article that has some up to date facts in it, because I don’t want to assume the wrong things about you. Thank you for your time, Tim Boccuzzi
NeoMedia Technologies invites you to participate in the Pilot Program for its groundbreaking new free cell phone software called qode??, that links you directly to information and offers on the mobile Internet.
http://www.myspace.com/getqode
Mrs. Ballard,
We have done our DD. On the other hand, I don’t think you had done your DD before writing the blog about Neomedia/Paperclick. I strongly believe this company will soon amaze us.
dlethe01
Montreal,Canada
Mr. Boccuzzi,
I have no relationships with your competitors, so I must be either ignorant or uninformed. My information source is your web site, and in particular press releases and other news sources. From these sources, I have learned from a number of purchases of mostly unrelated companies, as well as the sale of one of them very recently. From the same sources, I see that NeoMedia has a small number of working relationships with companies, largely in Europe. This list looks quite limited to me. Are there more that I should know about? Why have I not seen a qode anywhere (I was just in the UK)?
I did not “dis” NeoMedia, but I did publicly vocalize concerns. I look forward to being proven wrong. In 2004 NeoMedia looked like a thought leader. In 2006 they look like an unfocused player with many competitors in the same space.
Schaffer’s Pondering Primate blog doesn’t stand up as a reliable news source. I suggest you learn something legitimate about the company and their global opperations. Stay tuned.
Must we do all the DD work for you?
Start here:
http://www.thevalleygroup.com/innovations_1.htm
Then go here:
http://www.thevalleygroup.com/pdfs/Qode%20Brochure.pdf
Finish here:
http://www.thevalleygroup.com/clients.htm
Cheers,
Steven
Michael,
I have not used Schaffer’s blog as a news source, ever. I use press releases, interviews, and reports of interviews from valid news sources. Is he now saying negative things about your company? Interesting.
Get Ready
http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.co.uk/2006/11/mobile_barcode_.html
Cheers,
Steven
That’s terrific! This is exactly the sort of thing I was told had already been happening as of 2004. The story was that it was alredy happening in Europe, and was starting to get traction in the US.
Here in 2006/2007, of course, there are a few competitors on the scene.
I here Neomedia hired a senior svp heavy hitter last week from the mobile space to turn this company around. Anyone know of this? This guy comes from the mobile media space
Barbara,
Did you know Starbucks worked with Neomedia this summer in the US? What do you think about there relationship with Arnold and the Valley group in Europe…Will you change your mind if they partner with someone big in Europe? 12 SNAP was aquired to facilitate those relationships…..do you know of Gavitec and their recent accomplishments and cutting edge products?
Greg,
You’ll notice that in the original post I said that I still believe in the concept of both qode and qrcode. I started writing about it two years ago now, and believe it is central to the near-future mobile user experience. I don’t know how much more clear I can be on this topic.
My concerns have been about NeoMedia’s corporate practices, not their products. Unlike 2 years ago, there is competition on the scene. I don’t think a startup company with a narrow focus should acquire unrelated companies. In fact, the company’s behavior in the past three months bears this out: undoing the Sponge deal and aborting another deal. It looks to me like NeoMedia’s corporate management (or perhaps investors) are starting to recognize the scope of the problem. If the corporate practices can be cleaned up, without permanently destroying value, then you have a chance at doing well.
That is correct Jason. He is a heavy hitter in the media world, has an electrical engineering degree from City College (NYC) and has been associated with some very prominent deals in the media industry in the 9 figure range.
Barbara,
Why would a heavy hitter join the company now if things were so bleak from poor corporate decision making?
Greg
I don’t understand why people are attacking barbara. She may not have been up to speed on all developments at NeoMedia, but the acquisitions of the subsidiaries by the company was a major gambit. We all hope they survive and are stronger for it. I own about .2% of the company and watching the market cap dive 80% since the acquisitions has been hard, but I do think NEOM has a great strategy and potentially the team to pull it off, assuming we remain solvent that long.
-Brian
Mrs. Barbara,
Do you agree with Jim Levinger’s comments, CEO of Nextcode?
“QR is not the solution for camera phone code scanning outside of Japan.”
http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2006/12/05/smart-code-marketing/
http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/archives/2006-04/0037.html
What 2D barcodes will become the standard of choice?
Thank you.
dlethe01
Jim’s comments make sense, but I don’t have the ability to assess relative camera optics abilities.
On the other hand, I don’t think that we have to go with a single technology. Some enterprising entity – perhaps a carrier – could create a generic code-capture application for the phone, then send the code to each of the service providers, then end the user to the correct destination based on which code is recognized.
Mrs. Barbara,
What do you think about this news?
The News of the World will mainly use Qode for football clips, since News Group has won the rights to broadcast English Premier League Football to mobiles in a joint bid with BSkyB. The technology could also be used by advertisers to offer readers discount vouchers or further product information.
http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=details&nNewsID=609330
Pretty cool.
Mrs. Barbara,
What do you think about Microsoft?
“Microsoft is offering the ability to create AND link to new and existing “content”, the physical world.”
http://theponderingprimate.blogspot.com/2006/12/microsoft-unveils-aura-bar-code.html#links
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061213/ap_on_hi_te/techbit_microsoft_shopping_info
A.U.R.A. requires close, focused pictures of barcodes to convert the image into a decoded string. Many Windows Mobile devices have cameras that cannot focus at the close distances required by A.U.R.A. To work around this you can apply an A.U.R.A. Lens Kit to your phone.
http://aura.research.microsoft.com/Aura/AuraClient.aspx
Nextcode inks a deal Asia that is huge: http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=206194
First Asian innovative carrier to move away from QR. Why? Better resiliency on the code and more data.
Brace for the whining of the NEOM fan club. Let me guess “this infringes a NEOM IP”?
Qode is a mobile barcode solution from Florida based Neomedia Technologies.
Neomedia is a lightning rod for controversy given the company’s intellectual property claims and it’s potential impact on the growth of mobile codes. Recently the EFF filed a patent busting dispute with the USPTO against Neomedia’s mobile code patents claiming they are “bogus”.
Very good web site. I’ve bookmark your site. Good job !
Interview With NeoMedia CEO William Hoffman
http://streetstylz.blogspot.com/2007/12/interview-with-neomedia-ceo-william.html
Best,
Streetz
Posted first at;
http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/us-patent-office-rejects-all-ninety.html
Oh Wow breaking news – It’s a great freaking day for the EFF
U.S. Patent Office Rejects All Ninety Five NeoMedia Patent Claims
http://theponderingprimate.blogspot.com/2008/07/us-patent-office-rejects-all-ninety.html
Hey Streetstylz and all you other Neomedia flunkies – when you read this post think of me
This is a really big deal – 95 out of 95 patent claims all rejected, wow this is too cool and has put a smile on my face for the whole weekend.
Wonder what Ogilvy (and others) are thinking backing the wrong ‘indirect’ technology now. When Neomedia go bankrupt or are countersued out of existence all those marketing campaigns will cease to work and all the time and effort invested will be wasted.
Direct connect ‘license free’ QR codes are the way to go – paying license fees for a technology that Denso open sourced and made free in the 1990’s is just dumb.
For those of you that want to read more detail check out the EFF site that links directly to the USPTO ruling
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/07/u-s-patent-office-rejects-all-ninety-five-neomedia
Regards,
Dean Collins
http://www.Cognation.net
Turns out that the EFF claiming victory in its challenge to Neomedia’s 048 patent was just a bit pre-mature. See:
CASE STUDY – REEXAMINATION OF US PATENT NO. 6,199,048
http://www.barkume.com/Site/IP_News/Entries/2009/2/25_CASE_STUDY_-_REEXAMINATION_OF_US_PATENT_NO._6,199,048.html