Lars from Wirelesswatch Japan left me a comment on an earlier post. I want to respond here, why I think QR Codes are by far superiour to any other existing code.

Today I am biased, as we also have the Kaywa Reader, but before starting this new venture we did an extensive research on all codes in usage today, ColorZip being one of then.

So in regard to ColorZip I want to mention the following points.

• Print for newspapers is still mainly a black and white business. Also you have to deal with paper color (not pure white) and with printing quality. QR Code with it's good error correction (up to 30%) is therefore an ideal code for this use case.
• Printers: In households, printers are still mainly black and white. If you want that people can easily print out QR codes for non-commercial purposes, ColorZip doesn't make sense. So for DYI-culture QR Code is the way to go.
• ColorZip and most other proprietary codes have not separated the creation of the code, the software and the server in between. This has some advantages, but it has definitely more drawbacks. You rely on one single company for everything.
• ColorZip and most other proprietary codes always need a translation server in-between, QR doesn't necessarily. Stuff like SMS, telephone numbers and text etc. happen purely on the phone itself without any server transaction.
• ColorZip like most of the codes used with mobile phones are not standardised yet. QR however is an ISO, AIM, JIS standard. Also Denso Wave is very open about its usage. This will pay out in the long run.
• ColorZip is not widely distributed yet. QR is, not only in Japan, but in Taiwan and China as well.
• Color matters, but is also a dangerous field. We use color too though, but only (some experiments notwithstanding) on background and code colors so that the QR Code integrates well in a already existing designs (see example). We are still experimenting though. The combination of color and forms is a bit more problematic. The ColorZip codes I have seen so far did not really enthuse me. However it could well be that there is some improvements I didn't see yet.