Print & Mobile Phones: QR Codes, NFC Square Off

• Requirements: NFC requires an initiator (smart phone or other device that generates an active NFC field), a receiver target with an embedded NFC chip and software to process the data. QR codes require a camera to capture the code and software to decode it.

• Strengths: NFC's strengths lie in mobile payments, location-based navigation and POS (point-of-sale), and will replace QR codes in many of these cases. However, when it comes to print collateral, QR codes are widespread, affordable and cost little or nothing to create.