Prediction.... 'about to', will mean over the next fewdecades. Retail product barcodes may be the fastest to go, over the next 2 decades. Other uses, like self printed labels for warehouse stock control will be here for the foreseeable. You might install a new Manufacturing Execution System in 20 years that supports it. But the Warehouse Management System and ERP don't...

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jillesvangurp 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There are several things happening:

- Retail 2D codes are being rolled out at scale from next year already in many markets; 2d codes will be on many products in the supermarket. Preparations for this have been ongoing for quite long. Mostly scanners have been ready for this for some time. Most recent hardware should handle all this fine. Scanners that don't handle 2D will rapidly disappear.

- For industrial use, QR codes are already quite common. Use of QR codes is much less about replacing existing bar codes with QR codes and more about completely new uses for QR codes. You are right that most factories won't do invasive changes in their setups unless there's a good reason. But efficiency improvements tend to be a good reason.

I was at the Logimat fair in Stuttgart earlier this year. Lots of companies demonstrating scanners, sticker printing, camera modules, and all the rest. There are a lot of companies actively pushing all sorts of solutions around 2D codes.

	▲	cricalix 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		If someone works out how to print a 2D code that can be read when wrapped on a 2mm diameter cable (with a single scan, no rolling/twisting of the cable as it's fibre optic) I'll be interested. For now, regular Code128 style codes are the only ones that work reliably on cables that small.

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michaelt an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Linear barcodes aren't going extinct any time soon.

Instead, we'll see an IPv6 style transition, with some early adopters and others having no reason to change over.

Makers of short-life products like pre-packaged sushi will be at the front of the line as they get real benefits from tracking dates and batches throughout the supply chain. Retailers accidentally selling expired sushi does genuine reputational damage.

Makers of long-life products, though? That 24-pack of cans of diet coke has its barcode printed by the box factory, not the canning factory. Putting the expiry date in the barcode would be a total hassle, for very little benefit. If forced to, they'll just print the QR code next to the linear barcode, with exactly the same data.

And even if a retailer has the market power to bully their suppliers - there's no motivation to do so for non-fresh products. All commercial scanners that can read QR codes can also read linear barcodes. Wal-Mart doesn't lose anything if their bleach supplier keeps using a linear barcode.