Intermec 760 Pocket PC Certified For Sprint PCS Network

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://home.intermec.com/eprise/main/Intermec/Content/About/NewsPages/pressRelease?section=about&pressID=468">http://home.intermec.com/eprise/main/Intermec/Content/About/NewsPages/pressRelease?section=about&pressID=468</a><br /><br />Intermec's new ruggedized Pocket PC has been certified for use on the Sprint PCA CDMA network. The 760 supports CDMA, 1xRTT, 802.11 and Bluetooth networks. Intermec also has a GSM/GPRS version of the 760. Additional features include 64MB of RAM and Pocket PC 2002 (no mention of Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition.) Of course, what ruggedized Pocket PC would be complete without an SE900 laser scanner to read 1D and 2D barcodes and a place for signature capture.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2003/20030531-intermec760.gif" /><br /><br />You can pick one up now from <a href="http://autoidsavings.com/Catalog/intermec_760_series_232172_products.htm">AutoIDSavings.com</a> for a mere $3,085. 8O

[danmanmayer]

what kind of expansion features... SD, SDIO, Compact, my company has been trying to get ahold of a pocket pc phone device with 80211 bluetooth and GPS for ever... IF this has the right expansions it could do it with only 1 expainsion pack... So close

[Paragon]

what kind of expansion features... SD, SDIO, Compact, my company has been trying to get ahold of a pocket pc phone device with 80211 bluetooth and GPS for ever... IF this has the right expansions it could do it with only 1 expainsion pack... So close

It can have both SD, and CF. I'm not certain on the IO. You can buy these with a choice of functions based on your needs.

Dave

[David C]

hmm..... I think at that price and size, an Ipaq with dual slot sleve makes more sense.

[Ed Hansberry]

hmm..... I think at that price and size, an Ipaq with dual slot sleve makes more sense.
How? It isn't doubling as a cell phone and lacks ruggedized hardware. This is not a consumer device. This is something a delivery truck driver would use and not worry about dropping and kicking across the warehouse floor.

[johncruise]

You can pick one up now from AutoIDSavings.com (http://autoidsavings.com/Catalog/intermec_760_series_232172_products.htm) for a mere $3,085. 8O

Hmmm... maybe I should get 3 of this. 8O Are they kidding?! With this price, I'd rather soup up a Pocket PC by buying a GPRS card, extra batteries, etc and still have extra money to burn. Anyway, I guess others may have extra money to waste. :pimp:

[rbrome]

It's a perfectly reasonable price for that kind of specialized, ruggedized hardware. Intermec and Symbol have whole lineups of these kinds of devices, at these kinds of prices. Personally I like HHP Dolphins because they seem more rugged, but if you want the latest technology, Intemec offers some good stuff, too.

[DavidHorn]

Why not buy 15 iPAQ 1910s for the price and not worry about breaking them?

[dangerwit]

Why not buy 15 iPAQ 1910s for the price and not worry about breaking them?

In some businesses, downtime = money. In my chosen line of work, it means big problems for hundreds of people (customers like you and me) if equipment goes down and is not readily available. Granted, nothing is bulletproof, either.

Rbrome, we use HHP 7400s as our main scanner. What is so frustrating is that they are so slow to release the Pocket PC 2002 OS upgrade. I am hopefully getting my beta this week with it on there, but it's taken months and many broken promises to get it.

Also, the listed price is rarely what is paid. Usually a purchasing person/group gets a discount of a handful to several hundred dollars ($500+) per unit (especially with the purchase of an extended-period warranty).

*Phil

*Phil

[Paragon]

I really think some of you guys are missing the point of these types of devices. They are not light duty. They MUST be ready for use every single day, even after being dropped, left sitting on a bumper in the rain, or bouncing around in the back of a truck. Yes, you could buy three souped up Ipaqs for the money, but the individual using them would be out of service each time one of the Ipaqs broke. The return on investment is much better with one of these types of devices in most enterprise situations compared to a lower cost consumer device. The cost of lost productivity, and added support due to down time quickly surpasses the initial cost of the device.

Dave

[Ed Hansberry]

Why not buy 15 iPAQ 1910s for the price and not worry about breaking them?
Because you'll burn through 15 1910s long before the 760 dies. Also, who wants to maintain 15 1910 configurations so that in the middle of the day, when you drop-kick your 1910 you can pick up another one from the shelf that has the same info on it?

Guys, this is not a consumer device. Recommending cheaper iPAQs with sleeves in place of a ruggedized device makes about as much sense as telling the military to quit farting around with tanks and just buy 15 Jeep Cherokies with guns on the roof and not worry about breaking them. :wink:

[dh]

The guys are right to mention that devices made by Intermec (and Symbol among others) should not be confused with our consumer PPCs.

My company is involved in mobile printing so we get to work with all of these. The rugged PPCs (and Palms) are used extensivly in industrial type applications. Also as mentioned, no-one actually pays the list price. Since many companies by these by the 100s, if not 1,000s there are good discounts to be had, especially since all the Intermec resellers are competing against each other.

You do get a ton of Ipaqs and Axims used in less industrial settings, such as sales force automation.

Tell you what, a smartphone with all those features (a bit smaller and less the barcode reader) would be kinda cool)

And no, you can't use the 15 1910s instead.

15 1910s = zero barcode reader, zero CF and zero CDMA so they wouldn't be much good. I saw a really nice 2D scanner that used the CF slot in an Axim the other day. Of course once you tie up the CF slot, the Axim looses it's ability to communicate wirelessly.

[ctmagnus]

telling the military to quit farting around with tanks

<beavis mode>Heh heh heh... He said "fart"</beavis mode>

Seriously, I'd love to have one of these, except for the size. Although, yesteday evening, I took the dog for a stroll downtown with my iPaq in its PC Card Expansion Pack+ and an Orinoco Gold in one hip pocket and my Nomad Jukebox 3 in the other, so the size may not be such an issue for me after all.

[Ed Hansberry]

yesteday evening, I took the dog for a stroll downtown with my iPaq in its PC Card Expansion Pack+ and an Orinoco Gold in one hip pocket and my Nomad Jukebox 3 in the other
GEEK ALERT!!!!!!!!!



:wink:

[ctmagnus]

yesteday evening, I took the dog for a stroll downtown with my iPaq in its PC Card Expansion Pack+ and an Orinoco Gold in one hip pocket and my Nomad Jukebox 3 in the other
GEEK ALERT!!!!!!!!!



:wink:

Yeah, I didn't feel like wearing the eVest. :D

[Duncan]

GEEK ALERT!!!!!!!!!

What... here...? What are the odds...!

[johncruise]

I guess Dave and Ed are both right. I tried to compare them with Casio's industrialized/rugged device and the most expensive are $2,279. It has same support for the said features (not all at the same time though but with it's expadable slot option, you can put a GSM/GPRS card -- DT-X10 has 2 expansion slot). Scanner is also built-in. But then again, this unit has 32/32 ROM/RAM compared to 64/32 of the Internec's. Only advantage of this unit is it has .NET installed on it. So with DT-X10 limited feature, is it worth the savings of almost $500? I don't know... depends on who's going to buy it.

http://www.casio-europe.com/euro/cebit/dtx10/

Guys... don't take our opinions the wrong way. We're only trying to make sense of this since most of us here doesn't really need something like this (but then again, I maybe wrong). We do appreciate all your hardwork on bringing us this kind of information :D :werenotworthy:

[dh]

One thing that might be worth the extra is that the Intermec has a scanner for 2D barcodes. Most (if not all) of the earlier handhelds used simple scanners that could only read linear codes. There's a few hundred $ extra included in that option.

There are going to more and more 2D codes in use before long so imaging scanners will be replacing laser ones all over the place. Good news for HandHeld Products, Symbol and the others who make imagers.

I'd like to get one of these things to try out. Would be rather fun.

[Paragon]

Guys... don't take our opinions the wrong way. We're only trying to make sense of this since most of us here doesn't really need something like this (but then again, I maybe wrong).

Thanks! I'm the type who needs to be reminded quite often not to be quite so forceful. I tend to be pretty blunt sometimes, so hearing a gentle reminder like this once in a while keeps me in line.....sorta. :)

You may be interested to know that Intermec have a semi rugged device more along the lines of the Casio you mentioned, in the works.

Dave

[mscdex]

You can pick one up now from AutoIDSavings.com (http://autoidsavings.com/Catalog/intermec_760_series_232172_products.htm) for a mere $3,085. 8O

Actually, you can get one for a mere $2,840 at the same link (just scroll down ;)). :D

[ctmagnus]

One thing that might be worth the extra is that the Intermec has a scanner for 2D barcodes.

Dang, only 2D. It'd be wild if you could point it at something, tap a few times and get a 3D vector model of that object, ready to manipulate to your hearts desire. Then there's materials, density, color...

[Kiyoshi]

It'd be wild if you could point it at something, tap a few times and get a 3D vector model of that object, ready to manipulate to your hearts desire. Then there's materials, density, color...

Haha now there's a REAL geek.

I don't get how these things cost as much as a 3GHZ P4 computer? Can't you just have a really good PDA with all those integrated functions for maybe $1000-$1500? It seems like the ruggedization on these devices make the cost go up over $1000 yet it seems like that would only cost maybe $100-$200. Can someone explain how these things cost so much (even if they AREN'T at retail price)

[Paragon]

Can someone explain how these things cost so much (even if they AREN'T at retail price)

First, How rugged are they? They can be dropped from 5 feet repeatedly, and not only not be damaged, but not even loose their place. You can pick it up and continue on without even a soft reset. They can be sprayed with a hose. They can withstand constant vibration. The Intermac 760 uses an internal SD card so you can run over the device with a truck...a large truck :) completely destroy the device, sift through the pieces, pick out the SD card, stick it in another device and you have just saved all the valuable info that was on that device. Possibly a whole days sales. Or a days worth of confimation signatures for deliveries. For the most part they aren't using off the self components like many consumer PPCs. This does raise the cost of hardware considerably.

At present we don't have any retail devices that can handle WiFi, GSM/CDMA, and Bluetooth. Symbol, and Intermec do. They have developed the software to handle this. They have developed or paid others to develop many firmware application for these devices, some of which we use in our retail devices. They finance all the testing for all this as well.

In enterprise you need dependability, and value. If you look around at all the delivery drivers, and repairmen today you will see that many of them are using devices that are 10-12 years old. That is incredible return on investment. That is one of the main features that a compony will look at when deciding on a major purchase of equipment like this. That is worth something as well. Symbol, and Intermec don't work on as tight as margins, that is for sure, but when you can offer devices such as these that can still be in use 10 years down the road it is easy to get a little higher dollar for them.

Market value plays a part in the cost as well. How much do you think it would cost UPS to have a truck down for the day because the driver dropped his $1000.00 Ipaq? I doubt your boss would thank you for saving him as much as $2000.00 per device if drivers were coming back early on a regular basis with broken PPCs. I think he would be showing you how much it was costing in lost business.

For some they can offer one stop shopping. Both Symbol, and Intermec work very closely with 3rd party software developers to bring a complete package to a customer.

In the end....can you do most of these things with a consumer PPC? Yeah, most of it. BUT, they can't offer the value...the return on investment that a device such as Intermec, and Symbol can offer........ ROI Return on investment!!!

Dave

[Kiyoshi]

Great reply, but I didn't want anyone to waste THAT much time on it!!! :lol: :lol:

I think ultra-ruggedized handhelds like this would be crazy to have, being able to throw it around without worrying about breaking it would be relaxing to me. If only they could keep dust from getting under the screen..... :|

I've heard of a cell phone on cnetAsia that they played soccer/football (whichever you call it) with and it still functioned afterwards. That was after the 15-second water submerging test LOL

[Paragon]

Great reply, but I didn't want anyone to waste THAT much time on it!!! :lol: :lol:

:D

.....and I'm typing one handed. :)

Dave

[dh]

Here's some info on a new Symbol device:

SYMBOL AND HHP LAUNCH NEW IMAGING PRODUCTS
In spite of its rigorous defense of laser technology, Symbol is making moves in the imaging market. On May 19, the
Holtsville giant announced its new PDT 8146 Xscale terminal, which offers a miniaturized imaging scanner in addition
to Wi-Fi voice-over-IP capability. Symbol Sr. Product Director Steve Schmid said that, using a headset and
microphone, workers can remain in verbal contact with their peers while collecting data and even taking pictures of
invoices, receipts, and signatures.
“The new device even offers laser aiming,” said Schmid. “Simply put, a laser-light projects a ‘box’ around the
intended target, whether that is a bar code or a signature. Users can more easily and quickly focus the imager.”
Symbol intends to market the new terminal in parcel delivery, field sales, field service, logistics, public safety, and
insurance markets. In retail, as well as warehouse and distribution markets, the company believes the voice option will
be particularly useful to workers. The company says it has first adopters in Europe who are already making purchases.
The PDT 8146 will list at $2,995 in voice-only models. Models with voice capability and the imaging scanner will start
at $3,295.