All hail the Samsung Instinct

Samsung has inked a deal with mobile marketing firm Scanbuy. The latter sells a product called ScanLife, a 2D barcode application for mobile units.

As of next month, this technology will come stock in Samsung camera phones across Spain, Italy and Denmark. Mexico and the United States will follow soon after.

ScanLife mobile barcodes enable camera phone users to "scan" (or rather, photograph) 2D barcodes, such as EZcodes, with their phones, which then decrypt and reveal the information stored within the barcodes. They can be used in grocery stores to give discounts, on print ads to provide more information on a given campaign, or to send users to a mobile subsite.

Last year a company called Semapedia drew coverage for promoting a similar idea. The company promised to join the online and offline worlds with a set of do-it-yourself barcodes, encoded with customizable Wiki data.

And while Semapedia's innovations remain unfamiliar to the mainstream, ScanLife's relationship with Samsung may drive the concept out into the open. Samsung is the second-largest phone manufacturer in the world, with forecast sales of 200 million handsets in 2008 alone.

CEO Jonathan Bulkeley of Scanbuy went so far as to call the agreement a "watershed moment for the 2D barcode market." He diplomatically added, "Scanbuy is wholly committed to working with all organizations […] to ensure 2D barcodes reach their full potential in enabling the mobile phase of the digital information age."

Per its agreement with Scanbuy, Samsung will pre-load camera phones with ScanLife technology in every country that supports Scanbuy's business model. ScanLife's capabilities will also be used to promote other Samsung electronics.