April 2016

Utilities aren’t the only ones finding their way with GIS
In its latest blog, Xplroe Technologies points out that geospatial applications aren’t exclusively beneficial to traditional field service sectors. Thanks to the proliferation of more advanced mobile computing technologies and the collective efforts of organizations such as Esri and industry leaders, GIS information is influencing the operational efficiency of professionals in almost every global industry. Xplore's Vertical Solutions Architect Bob Ashenbrenner explains the situation and opportunities in considerable detail in Geo Informatics Magazine. [See Geo Informatics article] -- Posted Friday, April 29, 2016

IDC: overall tablet sales down, detachables gaining
According to IDC, worldwide tablet shipments were down 14.7% in Q1/2016 vs Q1/2015. Of the 39.6 million, 87.6% were pure tablets, though mostly low-end. Apple's marketshare was at 25.9%, Samsung's at 15.2% Detachable sales rose to 4.9 million units. "Microsoft arguably created the market for detachable tablets with the launch of their Surface line of products," said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers. "With the PC industry in decline, the detachable market stands to benefit as consumers and enterprises seek to replace their aging PCs with detachables." [See IDC media release] -- Posted Friday, April 29, 2016

Xplore gets $1 million order from leading US utility company
Xplore Technologies announced it has been awarded a $1 million order for its Xplore XSLATE B10 fully-rugged tablet from one of the nation’s top 10 electric power and natural gas utility company. The continued deployment and additional orders for the XSLATE B10 tablet are to help the company achieve cost savings and increase mobility in the utility field service. [See Xplore media release -- Posted Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Zebra Technologies study finds seven in ten decision makers to accelerate warehouse technology investment by 2020
Zebra Technologies announced the results of its latest Warehouse Vision Study, which compares input from 1,378 IT and operations warehouse professionals. It shows how responses shifted between 2013 and 2015, as well as on expectations in 2015 versus 2020. In essence, consumer expectations will drive increased investment in IT and operational functions in warehouses over the next four years as manufacturing and logistics companies continue to adjust to delivering directly to consumers. In 2013 that meant more warehouse locations, but in 2015 emphasis is on more items shipped, shorter delivery times, labor performance and order accuracy. This means moving to more modern, full-featured warehouse management systems, real-time location systems, bar code scanning, voice picking, tablets, and IoT projects. Mark Wheeler, director, Warehouse Solutions, Zebra Technologies, said, "We see this as an enormous area of opportunity: providing workers with the tools they need to do their jobs accurately and productively will help companies meet and exceed customer expectations for accuracy and on-time delivery." [See Zebra news release and Warehousing 2020 infographic] -- Posted Tuesday, April 26, 2016

San Jose PD again chooses Getac B300 to refresh fleet
The San Jose Police Department (SJPD) has ordered an additional 400 Getac B300 G5 ultra rugged notebook computers to replenish its fleet of squad cars, after first purchasing in 2009. They chose the Getac B300 again because it has consistently reduced equipment downtime and maintenance costs while improving productivity in the field. SJPD has cars patrolling around the clock in a wide range of temperatures, so the Getac B300 G5 provides a much-needed upgrade to advanced technology, connectivity and durability. [See Getac media release] -- Posted Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Xplore Technologies secures contract with Top Ten largest fire-rescue department in the U.S.
Xplore Technologies announced it has secured a contract with one of the top 10 largest fire-rescue departments in the nation, for more than two hundred of its XSLATE D10 Android-based rugged tablets. The fire-rescue department selected the XSLATE D10 for electronic patient care reporting based on the flexibility of the Android operating system. [See Xplore media release] -- Posted Friday, April 22, 2016

Intel to emphasize data center, IoT, cut 12,000 jobs
Intel announced a restructuring initiative to accelerate its evolution from a PC company to one that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices. Intel said the data center and Internet of Things (IoT) businesses are their primary growth engines now, delivering $2.2 billion in revenue growth last year, making up 40% of revenue and a (slight) majority of operating profit, which largely offset a 10% decline in net revenue in the PC market segment. These changes will result in the reduction of up to 12,000 positions globally, or about 11% of the workforce by mid-2017. [See Intel media release] -- Posted Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Japan Inc sputtering
Not so long ago, Japan seemed unstoppable. But then came the Lost Decade or two, the emergence of Korea as an electronics world power, and then the more recent natural disasters. What once seemed unthinkable is a reality. Sharp sold. Toshiba just reporting it has cut 14,450 jobs worldwwide (see here), and now as a result of the most recent earthquakes, Sony had to close its imaging sensor production lines, which, according to ChannelNews, make over 40% of all camera sensors, as well as all the imagers in iPhones. -- Posted Monday, April 18, 2016

MobileDemand on barcodes and a barcode generator
MobileDemand published a blog entry on the basics of a barcode, followed up by an actual online barcode generator that allows creation of codes in several popular bar code formats, and even the ability to print them out in a grid on standard sheets of paper. See The Basics of a Barcode and the Barcode Generator. -- Posted Saturday, April 16, 2016

Full review: Trimble's impressive Kenai 10-inch rugged tablet
While Trimble is best known for its GPS products and expertise, the company integrates all sorts of positioning technologies (GPS, laser, optical and inertial) with application software, wireless communications, and services to provide complete commercial solutions. With the Intel Bay Trail-powered Kenai, Trimble adds a rugged, versatile 10-inch class Windows 10 tablet with full 1920 x 1200 resolution and finger, stylus and glove capable capacitive touch. RuggedPCReview has now had the chance for a full, in-depth review of the Trimble Kenai. [See full review of the Trimble Kenai rugged tablet -- Posted Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Advantech unveils IoT gateway starter kit
Advantech unveiled an IoT gateway starter kit designed to jumpstart innovation with a reliable platform and open gateway technologies. The package includes a ready-to-run system (Intel Celeron J1900 platform & Windows 7 Embedded), IoT software platform service (WISE-PaaS), software development kit and technical support service. This gateway is also verified to work with the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. [See Advantech IoT Gateway page] -- Posted Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Xplore secures additional $1 Million order from U.S. railroad transportation company
Xplore Technologies announced it has been awarded an $1 million order for its Xplore Bobcat tablet computers from a leading U.S. railroad transportation company. The continued deployment and additional orders for fully-rugged Bobcat tablets is to help the railroad achieve cost savings and increase mobility in its yards. [See Xplore media release] -- Posted Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Full review: Getac's brand-new Skylake-powered 14-inch semi-rugged S410 notebook, lighter and slimmer than ever
Getac announced its new 14-inch S410 semi-rugged notebook featuring extensive security features, custom configurability, and Intel Skylake performance for public safety, insurance, field service and other mobile professionals. The S410, which offers 1920 x 1080 resolution and capacitive multi-touch, is 29% thinner and 23% lighter than previous Getac semi-rugged laptops, and now offers hot-swappable battery design. [See Getac media release and RuggedPCReview full review of the Getac S410] -- Posted Tuesday, April 12, 2016

VDC Research: Panasonic has top global marketshare in rugged notebooks and tablets
Panasonic announced the company has been recognized as the global leader in rugged notebook and tablets sales for 2015, according to VDC Research. The new report, “Strategic Insights 2015: Enterprise Mobility Solutions,” revealed Panasonic leads both categories in revenue and units shipped globally and in all regions the report tracks – the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. Panasonic sold 58.9% of the rugged notebooks and 50.7% of the rugged tablets purchased globally in 2015. -- Posted Monday, April 11, 2016

Unitech launches rugged Android keypad handheld
Unitech has launched the PA692A, a rugged Android 4.3-based handheld with a 3.8-inch capacitive touch display, integrated barcode scanner, RFID reader, and a physical keypad (either QWERTY or numeric). The PA692A, which joins the existing Windows Embedded Handheld-based PA692, carries IP65 sealing, can handle 5-feet drops, and has Gorilla Glass 3 display protection. [See Unitech media release and RuggedPCReview description, analysis and specs of the Unitech PA692A] -- Posted Friday, April 8, 2016

Juniper's Windows 10 Mesa 2 tablet now shipping
Rugged data collection solution provider Juniper Systems announced that its new Mesa 2 Rugged Tablet is now shipping. As the first Windows 10 device produced by Juniper Systems and the only IP68-rated Windows tablet on the market, the Mesa 2 joins a new category of data collection solutions—one that provides users with greater processing power and capabilities. [See Juniper media release and our preview of the Juniper Mesa 2] -- Posted Friday, April 8, 2016

Cognex enters rugged mobile terminal market
Cognex, a supplier of machine vision systems and industrial barcode readers announced that it has developed a new product line — ruggedized mobile terminals. The MX-1000 combines a modern smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S4/S5, Apple iPhone 5/5S, 6/6S and 5th gen iPod for now) with a rugged hand-held assembly that holds both the phone and a specially designed Cognex barcode reader. At a time where existing Windows Mobile/Embedded handheld devices are being phased out, Cognex expects that this unique combination will enable it to become a major player in a $500 million segment of the mobile terminal market. [See Cognex media release, the MX-1000 product page, and into video] -- Posted Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Juniper Systems blog: transferring data between Windows 10 and Windows Embedded Handheld
With Juniper Systems having introduced their first full Windows 10-based rugged device, the Juniper Mesa 2, the company published a very helpful blog entitled How to Transfer Data on Your Mesa 2 Rugged Tablet. -- Posted Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Xplore wins multi-million dollar order from global transportation company
Xplore announced it has secured a multi-million dollar order for its Xplore XSLATE D10 Android-based rugged tablet computers from a leading global transportation company. The order for the fully-rugged XSLATE D10 tablets is to help the transportation company achieve cost savings and increase mobility in its rail yards. [See Xplore media release] -- Posted Wednesday, April 6, 2016

BARTEC partners with Winmate to innovate the HazLoc market with advanced technology
Winmate and BARTEC, a leading provider of industrial safety technology, announced a partnership to accelerate the introduction of mobile enterprise solutions in the hazardous locations (HazLoc) market. The partnership has already resulted in the release of a Class 1, Division 2/ATEX Zone 2, 4G/LTE multi-carriers certified Windows platform-based industry tablet PC. A much anticipated Class 1 Division 1/ATEX Zone 1 will follow later in 2016. [See media release] -- Posted Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Samwell introduces new RUGGEDBOOK SR820s
Samwell introduced a new, faster version of its acclaimed SR820 rugged tablet platform. Successfully deployed around the world, the new SR820s is now based on the 1.91GHz quad-core Intel E3845 "Bay Trail" processor, supports USB 3.0, and provides up to five times the performance of the predecessor model. Samwell will show the new model at Computex Taipei, May 31 to June 4, 2016 at Booth M1231. [See Introducing RUGGEDBOOK SR820s -- Posted Monday, April 4, 2016

1 TFLOP in rugged systems
What if integrated Intel graphics are nowhere near powerful enough, and available discrete graphics modules aren't rugged enough for a project? Then it may be time to look at Abaco. Abaco, which used to be the embedded computing business of GE Intelligent Platforms, is a leader in bringing NVIDIA’s GPU technology to rugged products designed for deployment in the harshest environments. At GTC 2016, Abaco discussed their plans for NVIDIA’s new 1 TFLOP Jetson TX1 System-on-Module (SoM). [See Abaco media release] -- Posted Monday, April 4, 2016