In July Wheeler's team came up with an idea to do an augmented reality app for the holiday season. By pointing an iPhone or Android smartphone camera at one of the company's red holiday cups, a character on the phone would appear to ski, run, or move in some way on the cup, bridging the digital and physical worlds.

Pointing the camera of a smartphone or iPad at the Dubai World Championship's advertisement about Rory McIlroy caused the ad to come to life on the device with a video about Dubai, overlaid on images of real life captured through the device's camera. Users of touchscreen devices could touch a link to apply for free tickets for the championship.

even as quick response (QR) codes start to gain traction, they are under threat from the next generation of technologies that offer new and unique forms of interaction between print and digital media, such as near-field communication (NFC) augmented reality (AR), digital watermarking and even iQR Codes.

Near-field communication

Augmented reality

"What's the one device you couldn't live without?"

Apps.

Browser capabilities.

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.

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

From January to August, MRI measured more than 72,000 ads. Five percent of them contained QR or snap codes, up from 1.3 percent in the second half of 2010.

And the mere presence of the codes seems to get readers more involved with the ads containing them—of those who saw an ad with a mobile barcode, five percent took a picture of it with their cell phones.

By comparison, 14 percent who saw an ad visited the advertiser's website

2. If you're not embracing social media, get in the game.

5. Be mobile.

6. QR Codes explode

Don’t include EVERYTHING on your mobile site. That means if you have 15 different pages on your main site, it might only be three or four series for the mobile version. Make it really easy to find the phone number and physical address. It is surprising how hard it is to find address and phone number information on many Web sites. Avoid unnecessary graphics that make the site slower to load.

According to new data out from comScore, the total number of Americans who own mobile devices now tops 234M, with 90M of which being smartphones.

Mobile Web browsers were used by 44% of subscribers — up 2.9%

Mobile commerce will nearly double to $6.7 billion this year -- fueled by rising smartphone adoption and growing mobile Web use, according to a new eMarketer forecast. The market research firm estimates m-commerce sales will leap another 73% in 2012 to $11.6 billion.

“Mobile commerce is growing at a fast clip -- and it’s acting as an engine of overall e-commerce growth, by converting potential brick-and-mortar sales to digital sales as consumers use their smartphones while shopping in-store,” said eMarketer principal analyst Jeffrey Grau,

EMarketer forecasts that 37.5 million U.S. consumers ages 14 and over will make at least one purchase on their mobile phone next year, up from 26.8 million this year. Nearly all those buying via mobile will be smartphone owners, at 97% in 2012.

The earthquake that devastated Haiti nearly two years ago was followed by a massive relief effort that was supported in part by millions of dollars in donations by people who used mobile phones to text $5 or $10 to disaster aid groups.

Mobile giving has also gotten religion -- literally. Some churches in Los Angeles and parts of Arizona have recently tested systems that allow their members use cellphones to make their Sunday-morning offerings virtually, instead of dropping coins, bills or envelopes in a plate passed down the pew.

Many disaster aid campaigns have relied on contributions of fixed amounts, such as $5 or $10, via texting, with wireless carriers dropping the texting fees and collecting the donations to distribute to charities. But new tools make it possible to make more generous donations via an SMS message or a smartphone app linked to a credit card or other account, Plank said.

The holiday shopping season has officially begun, and a new survey has revealed that shoppers are going mobile to find the perfect gifts for their friends and loved ones.

More than half of respondents report they are making purchases using their mobile devices, and nearly a quarter have used mobile devices in the past to purchase holiday gifts. The results also show that during the holiday season: -- 56 percent of respondents had made a purchase from their mobile phone; -- 58 percent of respondents will use their mobile phone to compare prices while shopping; -- 48 percent will use their mobile phone to find store locations that carry the products they seek; -- 90 percent of those who had made a mobile purchase said that convenience was a major factor, and 47 percent said ease of use was a primary reason they had made a purchase.

Use of NeoMedia's NeoReader barcode scanning app jumped more than 240% on Black Friday compared to last year, according to a recent press release from the firm.

"Retail is going mobile. People are not only using their phones to get more information on goods and services, both in-store and on-the-go, but also to purchase," said Laura Marriott, Chief Executive Officer of NeoMedia Technologies, Inc.

1) Tesco in South Korea

Mytoys.de:

3) Chili's