Mobile barcodes (aka QR, or Quick Response codes) are old news in Japan and Korea, but they haven’t made it big in Europe or the US just yet. The Telegraph reported today that the tech is getting a big PR push in Britain, thanks to Pepsi. How long will it be until the scanning tech hits America?

QR codes are basically simple graphics that can be scanned with mobile phones to hyperlink to a variety of digital content. In Japan, they’re used to scan just about anything — from a print ad promotion to a product at a store to Grandmother’s gravestone (yes, really.)

Justin filled us in on the global impact of QR over the year, noting that the technology is gaining traction in the mobile marketing world, especially in Asia. In Europe, the tech hasn’t quite taken off. But that may change now that Pepsi is on the scene.

Mass beverage distributor Pepsi recently unveiled a major QR push in Britain, printing over 400 million mobile barcodes on its products for the first time. These codes over the mobile savvy instant access to games, videos, websites, prizes and other entertainment at the swipe of a phone.

This isn’t the first QR product in Britian, but Pepsi’s promotion is the first time a major company has employed the technology on such a scale, reports The Telegraph. The technology is “poised to revolutionise the British consumer landscape following the launch of the first major QR code marketing campaign in the UK.”

This week, Bena Roberts of GoMo predicted that in 2009 there will be an “all out war” in “the fight for mobile barcode supremacy” amongst the players. Mobile barcode companies NeoMedia, Scanbuy, UpCode, Mobiqa all landed big deals in 2008.