Interview: Michael Zimbalist, VP-R&D, NYTCO: Betting On Mobile Barcodes; Meshing Print, Mobile

While the use of mobile barcodes has been widely adopted over the past few years in other countries, particularly Japan, the technology has yet to break through in the U.S. The New York Times (NYSE: NYT) Company expects that will change within the next 2-to-3 years, says Michael Zimbalist, the company’s VP of research & development operations. To prepare itself for the day when consumers and marketers signal their collective acceptance of technology that sends a signal to open up an application when scanned by a user’s cell phone, the NYTCO is now trying to figure out ways to position itself to take advantage of mobile barcodes’ use for editorial and advertising. In an interview last week, Zimbalist, whose role is to manage the company’s “futurist” practice, discussed the company’s approach to mobile barcodes as part of an overall NYTCO mandate to explore ways to adapt the newspaper for mobile technologies. More after the jump…

The Big Idea – Barcodes: For a front page story on mobile barcodes in Japan that ran back in April, the R&D unit collaborated with the Times’ reporter and also created a functioning barcode to go along with the article. Zimbalist: “Something like 45 percent of all cell phone users [in Japan], at least once a week, invokes a barcode using their cell phone …There are several reasons we’re optimistic that this will take hold in this country. You see this topic coming up across a whole variety of industries. In consumer packaged goods, these bar codes are turning up as a form of inventory control. In manufacturing, they