Three advantages the ROV Scanner has over mobile “embedded” barcode scanner solutions
January 16th, 2009
by Nicolas Andron
Recently, a reader asked me if Microvision has plans to embed our bar code technology into mobile phones. Halfway through my response, I noticed it was shaping up to be an impressive treatise, so I decided to turn my response into a post, instead! (Short answer to the question: Microvision has not announced any plans to embed our barcode scanner technology into cell phones).
We designed the ROV Scanner so that, when paired with a mobile device to create a mobile barcode capture solution, it had inherent advantages over current embedded solutions.
1. Cost – Many of the current embedded solutions on the market are expensive, costing up to $2,000 per unit. Creating a mobile ROV Scanner solution with a BlackBerry or Windows Mobile device is a fraction of the cost with, in many cases, more the functionality. Click here to read the Mile High Grocery Supply case study to learn more about how they used ROV Scanner with BlackBerry to improve their stock reorder process.
2. Flexibility – If an organization uses different mobile computing platforms, wants to upgrade devices or make any other change to the host device(s), the ROV Scanner can be re-paired to a new host. Why buy a whole new data terminal when you can just upgrade the BlackBerry smartphone for a few hundred dollars and use the same ROV Scanner?
3. Software Solutions – Thousands of Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) exist to provide line-of-business software for common mobile platforms such as BlackBerry and Windows Mobile. We partnered with many of these ISVs and they’ve integrated the ROV Scanner into their offering to further extend the value of their applications. Businesses look to these ISVs for mobile solutions and use the ROV Scanner for data capture purposes. View the ROV Scanner Solutions Guide for BlackBerry (PDF) as an example, to see these different ISVs, their software offerings, and more.
Don’t get me wrong, embedded barcode scanning solutions have their place. A mobile ROV Scanner solution simply aims to enable businesses that seek a more flexible, cost effective solution.
This entry was posted on Friday, January 16th, 2009 at 11:35 AM and is filed under Bar Code Scanners.
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