From ordering food to buying things, everything is being done on mobile. Smartphones present a broad scope to businesses to use the technology and bring together crucial elements of their business on a single platform. Hence, companies should have a mobile-first strategy and keep it at the centre of their digital transformation efforts.
On the same lines, businesses using barcodes for managing their operations can altogether replace their dedicated, handheld scanners with mobiles and leverage barcodes without making significant upfront investments in dedicated barcode scanners.
Further, as customers and employees-
carry a smartphone, it is critical for any business to utilize this
opportunity. Also, moving towards mobile for business operation is a way to
stay connected with customers and employees to remain competitive and leverage
any business opportunity that comes.
Why Use Smartphones for Barcode Scanning?
Modern digital transformation is led by smartphones. Whether it is digitizing a business’s workflow or interacting with customers, smartphones are now the first choice to leverage. Similarly, for barcode scanners, smartphones are the most viable option to effectively boost everyday operations. Here are a few reasons why ID scanning via a smartphone offers an advantage.
Cost-effective: Today, advanced smartphones
are available for under $200 and provide better output quality and enhanced
user experience than costly, dedicated high-end scanning devices. All you need
is to integrate a scanner SDK.
Flexibility: Compared to dedicated
scanning devices, barcode scanning via smartphones provides flexibility as they
do not require any connection with a fixed computer. Besides, they are handy
and mobile and have their own batteries to function.
Advantages of Barcode Scanning on Smartphones
Wireless
Capabilities
The operating system allows it to be integrated
into a business's barcode system and its Bluetooth and wireless capabilities.
Unlike the traditional barcode scanners with wires, smartphones can interact
with the barcoding software using barcode scanner software.
Supporting
Device Convergence
In the technology sector, converged devices have a
discussion topic. A device covering a vast range of functions, such as a
tablet, can function as both a mobile and a computer. However, mobile devices
have an advantage in handiness and can be used as a multi-purpose tool to cater
to both customers and employees.
Similarly, in barcoding, smartphones are steadily
turning into multi-purpose tools. Now, smartphones can replace traditional
hardware scanners. These can also have OCR and MRZ scanning capabilities.
Better Scanning
Performance
Smartphones have always had their camera as the
main differentiator when anyone purchases a smartphone. Thus, the camera
systems have drastically evolved over the year, and now they are equipped with
high-resolution cameras and enhanced low-light performance. This means that the
cameras on smartphones can be used for business scanning requirements. In
addition, they have better functionality than traditional handheld scanners
and can be used for performing multiple scanning tasks at once.
Lower
Acquisition and Maintenance Cost
Compared to handheld scanner systems, smartphones
are 4x to 5x times cheaper. Thus, the initial acquiring cost is more
affordable. Apart from that, the maintenance of high-end scanning devices is on
the higher side. Also, as highlighted by Statista, the average lifespan of a
smartphone is around 34 months, which makes them suitable for a longer term.
Convenience of
Usage
Many users easily handle smartphones due to their familiarity with mobile devices and different user interfaces. For a comfortable process, large screens that display information in an effortlessly readable manner are essential, and the average screen size of a smartphone varies between 4 and 6".
This allows for comfortable display usage. On the other hand, handheld scanners do not have a display indicator; thus, one it is cannot immediately check whether the scanning process has been carried out correctly.
Integrating a mobile barcode scanner into any workflow without depending on a dedicated in-house app is easy with a barcode reader SDK. It can even be built using the standard barcode scanner.
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