7-Eleven rolls out rugged handhelds from Symbol

Matt Hamblen   Today’s Top Stories   or  Other Mobile and Wireless Stories  

Mobile Broadband Reveals New World of Notebook Productivity SAS Dream Team Video: Strategies for getting senior executives to agree Advances in SSL and Certificate Management Frost & Sullivan Competitive Ranking Report Grant Thornton Achieves 99.7% Tracking of Remote Assets Protecting Data on Laptops: Why Encryption Isn't Enough Six Questions To Ask About Information And Competition Virtual Reality SaaS Solutions for Remote Systems Management Sign up to receive Mobile Devices Resource Alerts

January 20, 2005 (Computerworld) -- 7-Eleven Inc. will roll out nearly 12,000 ruggedized MC3000 handheld computers from Symbol Technologies Inc. this year at 5,800 stores in North America as part of a move to keep store workers untethered as they track inventory, 7-Eleven officials said this week.
Symbol demonstrated the new MC3000, priced from $1,195 to $2,200, this week at the National Retail Federation show in New York. The starting price of the MC3000 is almost half the cost of the Holtsville, N.Y.-based company's MC9000 rugged handheld, which was introduced last year and is more durable and designed for greater extremes, said Symbol Product Manager Brian Viscount.
7-Eleven plans to provide two MC3000s, along with one new NEC Mobile Operations Terminal, in each of its North American stores, Keith Morrow, vice president of information systems, said in an interview. The NEC Mobile Operations Terminal is a modified laptop computer.
Dallas-based 7-Eleven conducted tests on a dozen devices from a variety of vendors before choosing the Symbol and NEC Corp. hardware for inventory control and purchasing, Morrow said. "The stores are open 24/7 and small, so reliability of the devices is very critical," he said. "We did a lot of drop and spill tests, everything you can imagine."
Morrow said the company needed to replace older DOS-based Symbol handhelds with the MC3000, which has a bigger color screen and gives a worker more freedom, since data can be transferred on the store's wireless network. Older models had to be placed in a docking station to transmit data.
The MC3000 is based on the Windows CE operating system, which helps 7-Eleven because "most of our new apps are on the .Net framework," he said.
"The crux of the business value of the new devices for us is that it will allow personnel to move out of back-office activities," Morrow said. For example, workers out front in the customer area can place orders for more merchandise on the spot, rather than having to do so in the back room.
7-Eleven also envisions using its wireless networks and the handhelds for automatic monitoring of some store equipment, such as the temperature of food chillers, Morrow said. Having wireless LANs means the Symbol devices could become a customer interaction device, although there are no specific plans, he said.
Symbol placed the value of the deal with 7-Eleven at $8.5 million; 7-Eleven officials declined to comment on the costs.
Symbol dominates the global rugged handheld device industry, with about 75% of the market, followed by Intermec Technologies Corp. in Everett, Wash., and Psion Teklogix Corp. in Erlanger, Ky., said Kevin Burden, an analyst at Framingham, Mass.-based market research company IDC. The

Continued...
1 | 2 | NEXT  

Print this Story

Send Us Feedback

E-mail this Story

Digg this Story

Slashdot this Story

"There are a lot of things different about this presidential election -- including YouTube. Thanks to viral video, U.S. politics..." Read more... Read more Mobile & Wireless posts or See all Blogs

Microsoft: 'Vista Capable' lawyers trying to hijack Windows Update Update: McCain protests YouTube's removal of his campaign videos Cisco demos public rooms for telepresence More top stories...

NASA completes remote fix of Hubble's failed computer Storage projects still a priority for IT despite economic problems Virtualization leads Gartner's top 10 strategic technologies for 2009

Q&A: E-voting security results 'awful,' says Ohio secretary of state How bad? 'I thought I was going to throw up,' Jennifer Brunner recalls. IT's biggest project failures -- and what we can learn from them Think your project's off track and over budget? Learn a lesson or two from these infamous project flameouts. Sprint's 4G Xohm WiMax: How fast is it? In our hands-on testing, the new Xohm WiMax network from Sprint was fast and smooth -- but for now, you have to be in Baltimore to get it. Accused Palin hacker has a history of intrusion College student David Kernell allegedly broke into a middle school server eight years ago, according to a former teacher. Windows Vista A to Z Reviews, analyses, how-tos, visual tours, hot issues and predictions about Microsoft's new OS. More Continuing Coverage After 9/11: Homeland Security Apple's iPhone Ask a Premier 100 IT Leader Bill Gates steps down BlackBerry Legal Battle Data Security Breaches Electronic Voting Firefox H-1B Visas HP's Boardroom Scandal Handheld Devices Hurricane Katrina Aftermath Microsoft Legal Issues Microsoft's Vista Open Source RFID Technology SCO's Linux Fight Sarbanes-Oxley Act Spam Voice Over IP Wi-Fi Windows Meta File Vulnerability Windows XP Service Pack 3 IT Careers 2010 Four years from now, the IT field will be a vastly different place. Will you be ready? More Special Reports Premier 100 IT Leaders 2007 Best in Class 2006 Computerworld Horizon Awards 2006 Premier 100 IT Leaders 2006 Salary Survey 2007 Best Places to Work in IT 2007 IT Forecast 2007 Premier 100 IT Leaders 40 Years of Computerworld ASPs, Take Two Best Places to Work in IT 2003 Best Places to Work in IT 2004 Best Places to Work in IT 2005 Best Places to Work in IT 2006 Business Intelligence Home Runs Business Intelligence: Smarter BI Business Intelligence: The Future of BI CRM Goes Vertical CRM: Sober CRM Career Planning Guide 2005 Careers: IT Profession 2010 Computerworld Horizon Awards 2005 Data Management: Mining for Gems Data Management: Taming Data Chaos Development: Hard-Workin' Web Sites Development: New Tools New Choices Development: The New World of Application Development Development: The Web Services Tsunami Development: Web Services Hurdles Disaster Recovery: Preparing for the Worst E-commerce Grows Up E-mail/Groupware: Big Decisions Faces of Mobile IT Forecast 2006 Global Mobile Hardware: Multiple Cores, Multiple Challenges Hardware: On-Demand Un-Hyped Hardware: The Shape of Things to Come Horizon Awards: 10 Cool Cutting Edge Technologies IT Management: Guide to Managing Vendors IT Management: Navigating Global IT IT Management: Recovery Ahead IT Management: The Future of IT IT Management: The Resourceful Project Manager Innovative Technology Awards 2004 Management: Reinventing IT Microsoft in Transition Mobile/Wireless Leaders and Laggards Mobile/Wireless: The Untethered Worker Mobile/Wireless: Tiny Gadgets, Huge Costs Network Management: Taking Control Networking: Turbulence Ahead! Networking: VoIP Goes Mainstream Operating Systems: In the Slow Lane Operating Systems: Linux Goes Global Operating Systems: Should You Nix Unix? Outsourcing: Offshore Buyer's Guide Outsourcing: Outsourcing Dangers Premier 100 IT Leaders 2004 Best in Class Premier 100 IT Leaders 2005 Best in Class ROI: Do the Math! Salary Survey 2003 Salary Survey 2004 Salary Survey 2005 Security Action Plan Security: Compliance Headaches Security: Proactive Security Security: Risk and Reward Security: Tips From Security Pros Souped-up Security Storage: Battling Complexity Storage: Cheap & Secure Data Stores Storage: Stretching Your Storage Dollars Storage: The Lean Storage Machine Storage: The New Rules of Storage Storage: The Ultimate Backup Guide Supply Chain: Missing Links Supply Chain: RFID Reality Check The Business of Security Web 2.0 Security Wireless: Wireless At Work All Zones Application Performance Zone Business Continuity Zone The File Data Management Zone Security Management Zone The SAS Zone Business Intelligence and Analytics Zone Windows Protection Zone The Enterprise Search Zone Software as a Service Zone The Security Zone See your link here

Mobility @ the Speed of Business Download this new tech briefing, free, compliments of HP. (Source: HP) Enterprises have a keen interest in making sure their increasingly mobile workers can get information when they need it, where they need it - not just when there is a Wi-Fi hotspot around. Many are turning to embedded broadband modems as the most cost-effective, easiest to manage solution to connect workers to the right applications. The results speak for themselves in this new tech briefing. Download this executive briefing  Virtualization Everywhere Download this white paper, free, compliments of Citrix. (Source: Citrix) Adoption of virtualization is concentrated among large enterprises, while adoption by mid-sized companies has been much slower. For these companies, the cost and complexity of server virtualization solutions has been a barrier. In this paper, we'll discuss how Citrix XenServer" provides simple, economical server virtualization for any size company. Download now! Download this white paper  The Promise of Mobile Unified Communications The Promise of Mobile Unified Communications Download this webcast, free, compliments of RIM. Go to the webcast  White Papers Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. Protecting Data on Laptops: Why Encryption Isn't Enough Grant Thornton Achieves 99.7% Tracking of Remote Assets Virtualization Technologies and Their Impact on Disaster Recovery View more whitepapers

• Microsoft: 'Vista Capable' lawyers trying to hijack Windows Update
• NASA completes remote fix of Hubble's failed computer
• Update: McCain protests YouTube's removal of his campaign videos
• More top stories 

Columnist Bert Latamore digs deep to analyze the latest networking trends. Click here to read the latest column by Bert Latamore

Networking Know-How For tips and best practices on building anything in the network, see Sandra Gittlen's regular column. Click here to read the latest column by Sandra Gittlen