More initiative please?

The mobile industry is moving along quite nicely isn’t it? We have (some) great services, some brilliant ideas being made reality, and I can only assume how cool the next five years will be. But still, I want more initiative!

A couple of month’s back I was told about a new web/mobile service; and to be perfectly honest, at the time I wasn’t impressed. I thought it was a bit of a scam, and I didn’t see the possibilities for it. Recently, I’ve began to think about it a bit more; what is the future?

The website is ticket-text.com; the idea, buy tickets for gigs, concerts and the like online, receive a text with a “QR Code” – a mobile barcode for you and me. At the venue, you scan your phone and voila, you’re in. It’s simple, quick, easy, and on the website, you’re told you can have the ticket sent to you no matter how many times you like, or even have it sent two days before the gig, so you don’t loose it in your inbox!

I know this is hardly new technology here, and in fact it’s been around for a couple of years now; it’s just the potential isn’t being exploited enough.

Imagine for instance the ability to go to your local cinema, buy your ticket, and have it bluetoothed to your phone? You wouldn’t have to worry about finding the ticket when you need to leave for a toilet break, or even to replenish that popcorn you devoured during the adverts. And best of all… It’s environmentally friendly.

Have you ever thought about how much paper is wasted on cinema tickets each year? Well, to be honest, I haven’t; but in this age of loving trees, and saving wherever we can, surely this can only be the way forward.

Similarly, coupons and vouchers! More paper that need not be wasted with the mobile phone! All one would ever need is their mobile device, and we’re living cheaper, cleaner, and more greener lives.

The thing is I bet there are quite a few similar services out there, which are using innovative ideas and technology just like this. The problem is we rarely see any of it. They might go through a “beta phase”, but then cease to exist, or due to high advertising costs, struggle to get any attention whatsoever.

There are so many possibilities out there, and I’m sure there are people who have much better ideas than a paperless cinema; but it’s a start isn’t it? Plus, this doesn’t just benefit the environment, but financially we’re all better off. Paper costs money, and with the supply and demand for paper ever increasing, I can only imagine the cost slowly going up.

I want to know some of your ideas, so send them in to me at Samantha@smstextnews.com and the best will be posted next week.