Microsoft announced on Tuesday that is has recorded its biggest month of Tag scans to date
The software giant revealed that Microsoft’s Tag service has now served over 5 billion tags. The company revealed the following statistics:
- March had the greatest number of Tag scans since Tag launched in January 2009, with more than 50 percent more scans than any other month to date.
- The number of scans per month has doubled over the past three months, and the number of users per month has increased 2.5 times in that same timeframe
- Three billion Tags were printed during the past six months alone, and 5 billion Tags have been printed since Microsoft Tag’s January 2009 launch.
- Publishing continues to lead among top industries adopting Tag, with retail scenarios and entertainment holding the second and third positions, respectively.
The idea behind the Microsoft Tag application is that you just aim your camera phone at a Tag and instantly access mobile content, videos, music, contact information, maps, social networks, promotions, and more. Tag is similar to QR Codes, however Microsoft is using HCCB bar codes so instead of storing the data using square pixels it uses triangle shapes and colours. The difference is that Microsoft Tags don’t actually store the information. All it stores is a unique ID which it then sends to Microsoft’s servers. This way, you can include much more information, and more variety of information, then if it was just on the tag itself.
Microsoft’s 2-D barcode technology is currently the publishing industry’s preferred technology. “Brand adoption and consumer engagement continue to build, with March being our strongest month to date, due to several high-profile, well-executed campaigns,” said Aaron Getz, general manager of Microsoft Tag. “We continue to have tremendous success within publishing and also see increasing usage by retailers, consumer packaged goods companies and movie studios.”
Microsoft’s Tags have recently appeared in USA Today’s daily newspapers. Universal has also used Microsoft’s Tag technology to promote its new “Bridesmaids” film. Microsoft Tag reader applications are available for a number of smartphone platforms including Windows Phone 7 and Apple’s iOS.