Cliff Holste, Materials Handling Editor

The News: Motorola in late December announced that is was releasing a new Voice-only terminal, the WT4090, primarily for Voice picking and other applications in distribution, to be available globally in the first quarter of 2010.

	SCDigest Says:
	The WT4090 is in fact a "wearable" unit in the sense of the general meaning of that term in the mobile device market, meaning it would not be worn on a belt like most traditional Voice-only terminals but rather on the operator's arm. What Do You Say? Click Here to Send Us Your Comments

Why it Matters: Voice remains a very hot technology in distribution, taking an increasing share from tradiitonal radio frequency wireless termimals, especially for case and piece picking operations.

To date, Motorola (which entered the supply chain and retail industry market for wireless with its acquisition of Symbol Technologies several years ago), had only provided multi-modal devices that embedded Voice capabilities in more traditional RF form factors.

With this release, Motorola now enters the Voice-only market, filling a hole in its portfolio, and with the release of the WT4090 also comes a new rugged Voice headset manufactured by the company, also filling a hole in its line-up.

Voice terminals have in a sense always been "wearable," but generally this meant a unit that was worn on an operator's belt. The WT4090, by contrast, is meant to be word on the arm similar to other RF "wearable" units.

The Story: The WT409 Voice Only Wearable (VOW), pictured below, is the first mobile unit from Motorola dedicated to Voice-only processing. Until now, Voice capabilities could be embedded in a number of other RF-based Motorola wireless units, and many companies will still prefer these "multi-modal" devices for many applications. However, others want the simplicity and perhaps lower cost of a Voice-only unit, which Motorola has now delivered for the first time.

The company says the new unit includes support for voice-recognition, text-to-speech engines and Voice-over WLAN (VoWLAN).

The WT40490 is in fact a "wearable" unit in the sense of the general meaning of that term in the mobile device market, meaning it would not be worn on a belt like most traditional Voice-only terminals but rather on the operator's arm, which may provide easier access to certain control buttons. The new Voice-only offering leverages the design of the company's popular WT4000 wearable RF terminal.

The WT4090 release is accompanied by the simultaneous release of Motorola's new RCH50 rugged headset (microphone and ear phones) for Voice applications. This is news because until this release, Motorola has relied on third-party headsets, which competitors sometimes used against the company in competitive sales situations. Motorola's Mark Wheeler, Director of Warehouse Solutions at the company, says that with the release of the RCH50, that issue has been put to bed.

Wheeler also tells Distribution Digest that the new Voice-only terminal will receive a more exclusive release within the company's broad distribution channels, requiring that resellers demonstrate a required level of expertise in Voice applications before they can get access to the product for resale or systems implementations.

He said Genesta and Lucas Systems are early partners, and the company expects to add many other resellers to its WT40490 channel line up soon.

"With its user-friendly and ergonomic design, the RCH50 lowers total cost of ownership with versatility and reliability in a range of industrial environments,” said Chris Sweeney, senior vice president, Lucas Systems.

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