In a panel discussion on the economic downturn PricewaterhouseCoopers principal Michael Kelley identified 2D barcodes as one growth market for the coming 18 months. Kroger and Wal-Mart are already putting the infrastructure in place.

Drop.io developed their new location feature in close collaboration with interactive agency Organic. At the Web 2.0 Expo Drop.io’s Chad Stoller shared the stage with Organic’s Conor Brady.

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File sharing service Drop.io today is launching Drop.io Location at the Web 2.0 Expo. The new feature provides users the ability to assign a physical location to digital content in a Drop.io drop.

Linking file drops to geographical locations opens advertising opportunities as well as additional privacy and security controls. Drop.io Location uses Skyhook Wireless’ wifi-positioning network.

T-Mobile next month will launch the first Android-based phones. Analysts predict Google’s mobile operating system will fail. ‘It ain’t no iPhone,’ says Yankee Group’s John Jackson.

Scepticism about Android is widespread. ‘That is the general consensus,’ says Ben Boissevain, managing partner at Agile Equity. ‘Not everything that Google does turns to gold necessarily.’

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Google last week unveiled the winners of their Android Developer Challenge. Most of the top 20 apps utilize the location capabilities of the Open Handset Alliance’s operating system, but with no phones on the market, Android faces an uphill battle against iPhone.

‘Google wanted twenty very solid, ready-to-launch applications for the new phones,’ says Rosie Pongracz, co-founder of PocketJourney. ‘I think that’s why they held the competition to begin with. That’s our interpretation. Of course nothing has been formalized.’

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