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Feb. 4, 2010

Motorola says it has invested an undisclosed amount of capital in mobile barcode company Scanbuy.

Scanbuy's technology allows camera phone users to access information such as product reviews, price comparisons and coupon offers while placing their camera phone in front or close to a barcode.

Motorola Ventures, a fully-owned subsidiary of Motorola Inc. and the company that acts as its investment arm led the funding round. Masthead Venture Partners, Hudson Ventures and private investors also participated in the deal as well.

"Overall, mobile barcodes are an extremely powerful tool for consumers, businesses and even wireless providers, which makes this opportunity very exciting for us," said Motorola Ventures Managing Director Reese Schroeder in a statement.

"The camera quality, display capability and processing power of today's smartphones, coupled with advanced G3 and G4 network speeds, now enable mobile users and the advertising community to fully take advantage of mobile barcode technology."

Since 2007, Scanbuy has secured partnerships with various wireless companies in an effort to expand the global reach of mobile barcode technology.

Scanbuy's ScanLife technology is available on the iPhone as well as devices based on Google's Android OS, RIM's BlackBerry and Symbian.

The new platform supports one and two-dimensional barcodes and has been deployed across North America, South America, Western Europe and Asia.

Scanbuy CEO Jonathan Bulkeley said in a statement that he was thrilled to have Motorola as a strategic investor.

"Motorola's long-time expertise and powerful resources will contribute to mass adoption of this great technology," Bulkeley said.

Last month, Sanjay Jha, Motorola's co-CEO, introduced the Motorola Backflip. The new Android smartphone features the company's well-received Moto Blur user interface on top of Android version 1.5 operating system. Motorola's new Backflip has a unique reverse flip design that acts as a sort of kickstand for viewing media.

The back of the touchscreen has a track pad for navigation of the smartphone. A company spokesman said the unique attributes of the Backflip are an attempt to offer mobile developers a new set of mobile features to exploit.

Beyond its unique form factor, the Moto Backflip doesn't stray too far from the Cliq. The handset comes equipped with a full HTML browser, 3.1-inch high-resolution touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera, LED flash, A-GPS, stereo Bluetooth and a 3.5-inch headphone jack and up to 32 GB of expandable memory.

"Since introducing our first MOTOBLUR-based smartphone, we've remained focused on differentiating the Android experience and bringing it to new wireless carrier partners around the world," Jha said. "Backflip maximizes the multi-tasking and multi-functional potential of MOTOBLUR with its unique design elements, making it as smart as it is social."

Motorola's new Backflip handset will be available in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia beginning in the first quarter.

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Source: Motorola.