NeoMedia Technologies, Inc (NEOM)

[srowen]

You've stumbled into a good point, and are correct, but I did already note this -- didn't explain myself well I guess. We are talking about which platforms are going to generate the most barcode scanning activity -- right?

So we aren't actually talking about the number of phones out there. A phone without an internet connection or camera is irrelevant when talking about barcode scanning.

A phone that can barely scan codes might get used a very little bit for scans. I'd guess these are the phones that don't browse the web much (or see ads much).

But stuff like the iPhone can scan barcodes and access their services easily. And that goes hand in hand with being generally internet connected and easy to use.

So ad traffic is, in my view, a better proxy when reasoning about the "barcode scanning market share". You can accept or reject that as you like, preferably offer a better proxy. But asking how many devices are out there just isn't the right question.

The Getjar numbers are obviously unrepresentative, since virtually no iPhone or Android device would go there for apps, since the platforms have their own market.

Always good to understand the biases in the data you're looking at, since no data source will perfectly answer a question.