Cheapo handheld scanners and poor lighting conditions. QR codes have a lot of the same contrast benefits that barcodes have, and it's historically been hard to

Cheapo handheld scanners and poor lighting conditions. QR codes have a lot of the same contrast benefits that barcodes have, and it's historically been hard to make an OCR-based scanner (for stocking shelves, lets say), with an acceptable retail price. Lots of industrial uses preclude touch surfaces, and lots of industrial areas preclude the kinds of displays you find on normal phones and such. And OCR in random lighting conditions, with random angles, and a little hand-jiggle gets ugly quick. There are also packaging benefits with QR codes. They are fixed size regardless of content, and have a common appearance. "apple.com/product" is fine to put on a sign, but "www3.hp2.hpe.com/enterprise-cms/na/en/v2/update4/supplierhub/supplier17/product.asmx?&id=BUYTHIS&source=FROMMYSIGN" and the like become a presentation and usability issue ;)