Mobile device targets logistics

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 27 Mar 2007

MTN and business partner Intermec have introduced a rugged mobile computer that can also be used as a cellphone.

The target market is the logistics and associated industries, where a universal device has long been sought to combine a cellphone with an RFID reader, GPS, camera, scanner and printer.

Intermec will, from Friday, provide MTN its latest enterprise palmtop. The CN3 is a Windows Mobile device that is Cisco compatible. It can host several printers, slot into an RFID scanner, take photographs, scan documents, capture signatures, access the Internet and e-mail, and make phone calls.

It also has internal GPS, a built-in panic button and offers a choice of WiFi, Bluetooth, WAN voice and high-speed data services, using GSM/Edge.

In demand

MTN corporate business unit senior manager Brett Kinsey says there is a growing market for universal devices that allow staff seamless access to the back office while in the field. Managers have for some time enjoyed access to their e-mail and Internet via mobile devices.

Until recently, field workers, such as truck drivers, supply chain workers, plumbers, engineers, architects and medical practitioners did not, he explains.

Kinsey says the leap forward is the result of convergence, which he defines as "mobile access to anything from anywhere".

This allows field workers to "communicate anywhere, anyplace, anytime, anyhow", and permits bosses to "manage, control and monitor anything".

Plumbers can now submit e-quotes, backed by before-and-after photographs from site; deliverymen can scan new parcels when picking them up and take photos of the address and person to whom they were delivered; medical practitioners can look up critical care data; and detectives can access police records.

Rugged challenge

On MTN, Kinsey says, this can all be done via GPRS. "The functions all run on GPRS without taking up too much bandwidth," he says.

Intermec regional GM Peter Howes adds that up to 18 months ago, enterprise only had a choice between consumer and industrial devices for these applications.

The consumer devices were not robust enough and the industrial equivalents were often bulky and expensive, he notes.

"We assume our products will be abused. If you tell someone they are ruggedised, people almost see it as a challenge."

Howes promises the device will be "priced affordably", but declines to say what that means in rands.