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It suggested that 34 percent of smartphone users have bought a product or service with their mobile device, whereas only 20 percent of standard phone users had done the same.

Across all of these device users, there has been an 8 percent increase in interest for using a mobile device as a part of the overall shopping experience and to make a purchase over the last two years. Again, among both feature phone and smartphone users, 38 percent feel that being able to buy products using a mobile device is at least somewhat important. In this, smartphones feel more strongly that this is the case, as 59 percent of them believe that it is as least somewhat important to be able to buy something using the device.

As more and more Americans turn to their mobile phones for information, the potential for QR codes grows ever larger. (Smart phone proliferation surged above 50% in early 2012). So, rather than wait for QR codes to die or, conversely, assume they’ll be just fine, marketers should take proactive steps to use QR codes more effectively right now.

First, businesses need to have offers that are QR code-specific.

Second, there is a difference between using QR codes in unique ways to get noticed, and using QR codes in unique ways just to be weird.

“A year and a half ago, mobile users tended to spend considerably more time — an average of 64 minutes per day — using the Web browser on their phone or tablet. By comparison, they spent only 43 minutes per day in apps. Now mobile users now spend an average of 94 minutes per day using apps, but just 72 minutes browsing the mobile Web…”

“In March, the web browser accounted for just 18.5 percent of time spent online among US smart-phone users. Mobile apps accounted for the rest. Now we know why Safari for iOS capabilities advance so sparingly: Apple sees it as irrelevant. Stated differently: Safari is to mobile what Internet Explorer 6 was to the desktop 10 years ago. Apps matter more to both developers.”

Adobe Flash is officially no longer available for Android devices. This raises a tough question for Web developers: whether to support Flash at all, and how to migrate a Flash investment for the next-generation of Web users.

Web developers have responded by moving away from Flash. Since last year, Flash usage on Web sites has declined from 27% to 23%, according to W3Techs. In comparison: Microsoft's Silverlight barely moves the needle with deployment of 0.3%, just above Java's 0.2%. JavaScript is used by over 92% of sites. HTML5 is reportedly in active use on 34% of the top 100 Web sites.

Adobe is hoping developers and users will adopt the Adobe AIR (“Adobe Integrated Runtime”) format, which extends many of the core Flash technologies in a cross-platform framework for deploying Web applications. AIR is available for Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Windows, OSX, and Linux.

New York commuters that wish to buy select toys from retailer Toys R Us this holiday season can try out the company's QR code-enabled virtual store, which is debuting on billboards located at the city's airports and 40 New Jersey transit stations. Commuters scan the QR code displayed next to the featured product, which takes them to a m-commerce enabled web porta

SHAPE, the leading active lifestyle magazine for women, reached record breaking numbers in mobile sweepstakes entries using a 2D Barcode, such as a Microsoft Tag or QR Code, with its November issue Microsoft Tag campaign.  Commemorating the brand's 30th birthday, SHAPE created with Nellymoser (http://www.nellymoser.com), a mobile marketing company, an interactive sweepstakes offering readers the opportunity to win close to 1000 products throughout the issue.

This celebratory campaign allowed readers to scan-to-win everything from an exercise bike to their favorite mascara, as well as other SHAPE picks featured on the pages of the magazine.

Where phones cannot scan

In-flight magazines

On the side of buses

20.1 million mobile phone owners in the U.S. used their devices to scan a QR code in the three-month average period ending October 2011. In the big scheme of things, this isn’t a large number. However, the number of people using QR codes is expected to grow.

1. Reinventing the Shopping Experience

2. Enhancing the User Experience

Despite many consumers not knowing what to do when coming across a QR Code a whopping 86% of marketers said they plan to use QR Codes sometime in the future.

newspapers and magazines are where most QR Codes are being found and scanned (35%) followed by on packages (18%) and on websites (13%). Surprisingly few were scanned from billboards (11%) or a piece of direct mail (11%).

The majority of these people scanned a code to receive some kind of discount on a product or service. The study found that 18% of consumers scanned codes to purchase products

Those that did not scan a QR code noted that they were unaware of what the codes were or how to use them.

With many consumers still unfamiliar with the codes, marketing campaigns using them may not be as successful as they could be. Companies interested in using the codes for their campaigns may need to take steps to ensure that consumers know how to scan the codes.

Online retail sales were about $60 billion in 2011, roughly 15% of total retail sales, according to Forrester. That is up 2 percentage points from 2010 and 9 percentage points from 2005.

Mobile is currently only 2% of online retail sales, or about $6 billion.

About 16% of consumers use mobile devices to look up product information, 30% use them to look up store hours and 23% use them to locate a store.

62 percent of US mobile users between the ages of 25 and 34 own smartphones, compared to just 43 percent of all US mobile phone users, according to the latest mobile report from Nielsen.

Older folks rank low on smartphone adoption, but Nielsen points out that those between 55 and 64 are the second-fastest growing group, jumping 5 percentage points this quarter to reach 30 percent.

Recouping even the typically modest investment needed to deploy a QR code often depends on a few key steps. One is offering those who read the code something they can use. "The codes are a bridge," Strack says. "When the user crosses the bridge, there needs to be something of value." That might be useful information, a coupon or another promotion.

Similarly, the site to which the code leads should be developed specifically for mobile phones. A website designed for computer monitors usually is difficult to view on a phone, Pinto notes.

Finally, in order to reap the full benefits of a QR code, you want to find some way to gather information from the user, such as an email address, so that you can contact them again. The QR codes and the scanning applications don't capture this information.

Where your visitors are coming from – very important if you’re targeting a specific audience.How your visitors found your website – this is very important for determining which of your efforts are paying off. It shows if visitors found your site directly, through a referral from another website (ex: Twitter, Facebook), or from search engines.Web browsers used by your visitors – knowing which web browsers your visitors use allows you to know which browsers you should be focusing on.What keywords were used by visitors in the search engines to get to your website – this is very crucial for SEO. Knowing which keywords people are searching for to get to your site determines if you are on the right track.

Mobile Fast Facts How Well Do You Know the US Mobile Smartphone User? 39% use the Internet on their smartphones while going to the bathroom 70% have used their smartphones while shopping in-store 88% of people looking for local information have taken action within a day 82% of smartphone users notice mobile ads