Last week in Sydney, fans of Jet rock band could receive their tickets in the form of a bar code sent by SMS. About 20 % of attendees chose that option.
The barcode of the “Mobi-ticket” is scanned by a Bluetooth hand-held scanner and information is sent to a laptop.
Besides, Mobi-ticket was used as an after-sales promotion, proposing customers a two-for-one deal on drinks simply by scanning the bar code on their phones.
But industry observers do not believe the “ticket revolution” will happen overnight.
– many fans might be taken aback by the risk of losing the ticket because their phone is stolen, or the message is accidently deleted (although I think that theft or accident can also happen to your wallet or your paper ticket!)
– the process might not be that swift: a ticket is handed over in one second, but swiping a card, getting information up and checking information about credit card records takes time.
– printing tickets is not expensive, but paying employees to sell them via phone has a cost.
– many fans want to keep their tickets as mementos.
– then there is also the anticipation factor: the experience starts from the moment you get the ticket in your hand.
Cinemas in Australia plan to use the same technology by the end of the year.
Related entry: Just scan the barcode to get access.