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Motorola Introduces New Business Line of RFID Readers

Posted on: Tuesday, 28 April 2009, 07:00 CDT

FX7400 RFID reader offers high performance in a compact design for improved inventory management

ORLANDO, Fla., April 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- RFID Journal Live! (Booth #215) -- Building on its extensive history of enterprise innovation and industry firsts, Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) today introduced a new series of business-class fixed radio-frequency identification (RFID) readers. The Motorola FX7400 series provides maximum functionality in a sleek package that is less than half the size of traditional fixed RFID readers, making it ideal for retail stores, offices, and other customer-facing or business environments.

Motorola's new cost-effective, high-performance fixed RFID reader is built on a new platform that supports Gen 2 technology and is capable of hosting third-party, customer-driven embedded applications to meet the growing requirements of enterprises. As a compact, lightweight, unobtrusive RFID reader, the FX7400 can be installed under point-of-sale counters, behind walls or on ceilings - providing an ideal solution for item-level tracking, retail inventory management, file tracking and asset management applications in environments where performance and a small footprint are critical. For retailers, this new reader will help improve employee productivity, reduce cycle count times and decrease out-of-stock items in order to improve operations and increase sales. The FX7400 series complements Motorola's existing portfolio of industrial solutions and opens a new window of opportunity for retailers and businesses to implement RFID. Motorola intends to broaden this business-class portfolio with additional reader options in the future.

"The introduction of the FX series of business-class readers draws on Motorola's decades of design excellence, typifying its innovation prowess and commitment to collaborate with customers to create new and differentiated technologies that meet the specific needs of RFID customers across varying markets," said Mike Poldino, vice president of RFID, Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions. "With the FX7400 series, Motorola is making it even easier for our business-class customers to deploy, use, and manage RFID. For our retail customers in particular, we designed the FX7400 to support the increased employee and operational efficiencies necessary for an enhanced in-store customer experience."

The FX7400 series supports deployments worldwide with one single configuration, making it easy for organizations to deploy and manage RFID solutions across multiple regions and locations. With the FX7400 fixed RFID reader, Motorola is introducing the industry's first plenum rated(1) RFID reader, and includes Power over Ethernet (PoE) connectivity, which helps users reduce the cost of electrical drops and the need for external power supplies. The feature-rich FX7400 also includes a unique key hole bracketing design and mounting bracket for easy mounting onto counters, walls and ceilings. Customers can choose between models with two- and four- antenna port configurations, helping to reduce deployment complexity and meet a variety of application needs at an affordable cost.

Easy to install, configure and manage right out of the box, the FX7400 series is designed for integration with both Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 and IBM WebSphere Premises Server 6.0 and 6.1. It also supports Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 2.0 for hosting customer applications directly on the reader. The FX7400 offers a variety of security features and leverages standardized auto discovery, firmware upgrade and monitoring protocols to quickly and easily manage readers across a network.

"The compact, high performance FX7400 is a major stepping stone in the industry's effort to innovate standards-based technologies that encourage the continued growth and broad adoption of RFID solutions across industries," said Darrell Cavens, director of product management for BizTalk Server at Microsoft Corp. "We look forward to working with Motorola to support its new business-class line of readers, and we believe that our widely adopted Microsoft BizTalk Server platform coupled with Motorola's FX7400 series readers will give customers the precise tools they need to quickly and easily gain real-time visibility into their business processes."

In conjunction with the introduction of the FX7400, Motorola is also introducing a new reader interface and set of APIs in .NET, C and Java, enhancing the user experience and making it easier for application development. Motorola is also releasing ShowCase II, a new set of software tools to enable a broad range of applications, including benchmarking, field testing, and firmware and seamless reader configuration upgrades.

The Motorola FX7400 fixed RFID reader will be available through Motorola PartnerSelect members and Motorola sales. It is expected to be available in the U.S. and Europe in the third quarter of 2009 and globally by the end of the year.

About Motorola

Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications and is focused on advancing the way the world connects. From broadband communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility and public safety solutions to high-definition video and mobile devices, Motorola is leading the next wave of innovations that enable people, enterprises and governments to be more connected and more mobile. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) had sales of US $30.1 billion in 2008. For more information, please visit www.motorola.com.

MOTOROLA and the stylized M Logo are registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. (C) Motorola, Inc. 2009

Microsoft, Windows, Windows Me and Windows Vista are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries.

(1) Plenum is the space between the structural ceiling and the dropped ceiling or under a raised floor that is typically used to house a building's networking and hardware technologies. The plenum rating allows the FX7400 to be installed in these tight air spaces.

SOURCE Motorola, Inc.

Source: PR Newswire

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