If you were an alien visiting our recent promotional products industry mega-tradeshow in Las Vegas, you would have thought the only way to make it in business now is to have your own QR Code.

They look like this, if you aren’t familiar with them:

There were special education sessions on it. Vendors who have developed programs playing off QR Codes had sessions. The apparel suppliers were wearing their QR codes embroidered on their shirts. They may have had it embroidered on other clothes they were wearing too, I don’t know and didn’t want to check.

Quick Response (QR) codes were invented in Japan and have been used in industry there for several years now. You can google it to find out more if you like. Anyway, while they do seem to be a great business tool, I wonder how overrated they may be? What other things like this have been the next best thing since sliced bread, only to fade away?

• Well, fax machines, although they had a very good run.

• Email – I mean do you think it really achieves much of anything for you? Sure it’s dirt-cheap, and worth it.

• Pagers. They’re a joke now.

• Newspapers. Really read one recently?

• Telephones. Yours ring much lately?

• Typewriters – man they had a long run, but it didn’t last. When my son saw one a couple years ago he asked what it was.

Well you should be getting the point. Maybe you can come up with some “has-been” business tools?

But here’s my real point, the rate of change for these things has accelerated tremendously due to technology. So how excited should we get about QR Codes? How much time should we put into having one? Will they be gone next year even?

What do you think?