Scanbuy Inc.'s 2D bar code application will be pre-loaded in camera phones from LG Electronics Inc., the No. 3 handset maker worldwide.

With this deal, Scanbuy's ScanLife app will now be pre-loaded on mobile phones from LG and Samsung, the second-largest handset manufacturer after Nokia.

"It means for us and for the market, in general, that 2D bar codes are going to become a reality in the next year or two," said Jonathan Bulkeley, CEO of Scanbuy, New York. "The ecosystem is coming together."

The application is already available on the LG KF310 phone in Spain.

More LG phones in Europe will soon have ScanLife, and eventually models released in the United States.

LG shipped 100 million handsets last year, including popular models such as the Secret, Renoir, Viewty and the Voyager.

Scanbuy concluded the LG deal months after striking a similar relationship with Samsung in the fall.

ScanLife uses the camera phone to read all major 2D bar code formats that immediately connect the mobile consumer to the mobile content and information.

This technology eliminates the need for a consumer to type Web addresses or search for information using keywords, according to Scanbuy.

The Scanlife application is geographically and internationally interoperable. Used anywhere, it can be downloaded for free from the phone's browser at http://www.getscanlife.com.

Per the company, marketers and content providers can use the ScanLife Code Management Platform to take their content mobile from other media such as print advertising and packaging.

Also, individual users can create free codes from the platform that links to their contact information or social networking sites.

Scanbuy is busy pitching other handset makers worldwide to incorporate its ScanLife technology.

But the first sell for companies such as Scanbuy is the notion of bar codes as yet another mobile commerce and content tool.

"I think they're looking at it closely and they all think there will be a variety of ways to transact or enable mobile commerce on the phone and clearly mobile bar codes are seen as one of those major ones," Mr. Bulkeley said.

However, it is "early days, really early days," he said. "The technology is starting to be used."