5% Of US Adults Use QR Codes

Sites include forrester.com . Published on November 19th, 2011. Written by Anthony West.

The QR Code is becoming quite ubiquitous so it comes as no surprise that 5% of US adults use them to interact with various forms of media and data online and on the go. The percentage was revealed in a study conducted by Forrester Research, who took an in-depth look at the percentage of smartphone users in the US who scan 2D Bar Codes.

The growth in usage is a modest 1% up on the 2010 figures; however, Forrester did note that the pace of growth with QR Code technology is staggering. What hasn’t been growing fast enough to compensate for this growth is the adoption of QR Codes into business marketing strategies. According to writer and researcher, Julie Ask, “Too few eBusiness professionals use best practices to offer consumers good experiences once they’ve scanned a bar code”.

Whatever the case, businesses need to catch up and so fast because the study also found that Android users are leading the field in terms of overall QR Code scanning percentage (23). Another 19% of Apple’s iOS platform use QR Codes and so given the projected growth in smartphone technology and usage, it simply makes sense for businesses to adopt QR Code marketing now.

Of course, this is easier said than done. And given the recent revelation that 30% of Fortune 500 companies don’t own a Facebook or Twitter account, I wouldn’t be surprised if the adoption of QR Codes never achieves critical mass.

Do you use the QR Code technology on your smartphone? Share your experiences with us below.