Look to Asia if you want to see what’s going to be happening on your mobile phone in the United States in a few years.

The Japanese and Koreans have been far ahead of us in introducing mobile phones. And they are creating lots of services on top of those phones that will migrate to the United States in time. And China may be following too.

A recent BusinessWeek story suggests that China will start using bar codes on mobile phones to stimulate advertising on the 461 million (all numbers in China are big) mobile phone screens.

Here’s the idea: You use for mobile phone to take a picture of a bar code, say on a billboard or an sign at the supermarket. You then click on that on your mobile phone and you get an advertisement–or maybe you even get a coupon to get a discount.

It’s simple, but the opportunities are tremendous.