Following on from part one of our digital trends and watch list for 2012, where Emma Fisher, Head of Business Development, shared her views on the new technology and opportunities facing marketing in 2012, we now get the thoughts of Martin Watts, Digital Marketing Director.

The death of the QR code?

Over the past 18-24 months, the acceptance and use of Quick Response (QR) codes has steadily increased among marketing and creative professionals, as well as individual and business consumers, but the question remains, what’s the future of QR codes?

With 1 in 3 adults now owning a smart phone (Source BBC -http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14397101), the uptake of QR codes could easily go either way. The crucial factor to the their success or failure will be how we, as marketers, build engaging mobile brand experiences and give consumers a real reason to scan. All too often we’ve seen brands direct consumers to a non-mobile optimised website homepage.

Something else to look out for in 2012 is more augmented reality ‘scanning’ of real world objects as we’ve seen the start-up Blippar doing over the past few months with top UK brands such as Cadbury.

App-lification of the web

With 1.2 billion apps downloaded over the Christmas holiday period in Apple’s AppStore (compared to 750m the week prior) – the UK being a third of this, ‘apps’ are going to feature heavily in 2012. We’re not just talking about mobile apps though; it seems that every gadget now has an app store, including some TVs.

With both Windows and Apple desktop operating systems going down a more ‘tablet’ style user interface route as well, the line between desktops, tablets and mobiles is becoming a little blurry; Apple with its Mac App Store and LaunchPad and the soon to be launched Windows 8 with its “Metro UI” for launching apps.

The cost of creating these apps is falling dramatically as well. As the market expands with more handsets and more brands creating their own apps for their product or service, an app is now within reach for a lot of small businesses. So you can expect to be doing a lot more directly from your phone or tablet via an app in 2012.

Apple Goodness

We’re just a month into 2012, but the Apple rumour mill is already stirring with predictions for the year. With a lot of people disappointed with the lack of iPhone 5 in 2011, predictions are that 2012 is the year for the next must have iPhone.

Credible sources are indicating that the iPad 3 will be launching this year with a retina display (currently only available in the iPhone 4 and 4S) that will rival resolutions on most office desktop PCs (via TechRadr – http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/tablets/ipad-3-retina-display-orders-tip-early-2012-release-date-994365).

Perhaps the most interesting rumour making its way across the internet at the moment though is that of the Apple TV that might launch in the summer, being called “iTV” by bloggers. Rumoured to be launching in 32” and 37” versions, could this be the device that revolutionises TV in the same way that the iPod did the music industry? Exciting times ahead.

What do you think of the new technology we’ve covered in our 2012 watch list? Do you think we’ve missed something? What do you expect the big marketing trends of 2012 to be? Leave your comments below.