Microsoft has just announced the addition of new features to its Microsoft Tag platform, making it now capable of reading both Tag and QR Codes, and complementing these with support for NFC capabilities.
Microsoft Tag was released back in 2009, but it was available only in a beta flavor since 18 months ago, when Microsoft upgraded it to a full release.
It already provided a variety of capabilities, such as a high-quality reader, Tag customization, and even advanced analytics (with increased extensibility via a Tag SDK), but it seems that it can do better.
In addition to offering support for its own set of codes, Microsoft Tag also includes QR code reading capabilities now, along with Near Field Communications (NFC) features.
Since QR codes are some of the most popular 2D barcode formats today, it was only a matter of time before Microsoft added the capability to Microsoft Tag, that’s for sure.
“[M]arketers wanted an easy way to use a full suite of recognition technologies all in one place. And with so many formats and readers on the market, there is increasing frustration among consumers over not knowing which reader to use for which code,” Aaron Getz, general manager, Microsoft Tag, explains.
“To help simplify the growing fragmentation currently taking place in the barcode/reader market, today Microsoft Tag is providing support for the two commonly used 2D barcode formats (Tag and QR Codes) and for Near Field Communications (NFC) capabilities.
“With this extension, brands have the freedom to choose the format most appropriate for their campaigns and give consumers the ease of one reader to use.”
Basically, courtesy of the new update, companies and individuals will be able to create their own QR codes or Microsoft Tags through the use of Microsoft Tag Manager.
Not to mention that scanning of QR codes will be possible through the Microsoft Tag mobile application (it is available for Windows Phone 7 and 7.5, Windows Mobile, iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, and J2ME phones).
You should head over to the Microsoft Tag
website to learn some more info on the platform.
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