18 DC VELOCITY NOVEMBER 2017 www.dcvelocity.com
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Honeywell picks Android OS for future handhelds
Honeywell International Inc. rolled out a family of mobile
computers that rely on Google Inc.’s Android operating
system (OS) to power future generations of handhelds for
distribution centers, retailers, and transportation and logistics service providers.
All of the products in the “Mobility Edge” platform will
use a common set of hardware and software
foundations through 2025, allowing Morris
Plains, N.J.-based Honeywell to quickly create new versions of devices such as wearable
computers, voice-directed technology, tablets,
and vehicle-mounted computing units, the
company said.
By choosing the Android OS, Honeywell
is revealing that it will back Google, a division of Mountain View, Calif.-based Alphabet
Inc., over its software rivals Apple Inc. and
Microsoft Corp. for the future of the software used in rugged handheld computers.
Microsoft’s Windows OS currently has a huge
market share in that sector, but the Redmond,
Wash.-based company plans to “sunset” its support of the
versions of that software now used in nearly all brands of
handheld devices by about 2020.
The platform adds another page to Honeywell’s growing
menu of products for retail and supply chain operations.
Honeywell has been throwing its weight around in the
logistics sector through a series of acquisitions that began
with the data-capture equipment supplier Intermec Inc. in
2012 and included the purchase of material handling auto-mation specialist Intelligrated in 2016. The company has
also announced some high-profile partnerships, including
a deal with Intel Corp. to develop Internet of Things (Io T)
solutions and a partnership with Google and chipmaker
Qualcomm Inc.
A BIG BET ON ANDROID
The Android platform is already becoming the
de facto standard for industrial mobile devices,
Honeywell executives said in a webcast launch
at a company site in Mannheim, Germany. By
committing to Android up front, Honeywell
said, it is able to install sufficient processing
power and memory in its Mobility Edge prod-
ucts to run any planned version of that OS,
ranging from the current Nougat (version 7)
to Oreo (version 8) and a future version code-
named “Q.”
Building in enough computing power to han-
dle those upgrades can save money for com-
panies that are seeking solutions to logistics industry pain
points, Lisa London, vice president of Honeywell’s Safety
and Productivity Solutions group, said in an interview.
“Businesses are pushing their information technology
(IT) departments to move at a faster pace than ever before,
saying ‘We need a new application or a new device,’”
London said. “So the challenge is how to answer that call
without increasing your IT budget five times.”
The first member of Honeywell’s Mobility Edge family
is the Dolphin CT60 handheld computer for transportation, logistics, and retail workers. Devices like the Dolphin
CT60 will help enterprise users engaged in pickup and
delivery, direct store delivery (DSD), and field-service
applications reduce their total cost of ownership by relying on common hardware and software components and
a consistent form factor until 2025, London said. That
design lets businesses avoid the costly process of recoding
and recertifying computers every time they buy a new
device, she said.
Honeywell will also continue to manufacture handheld computers that run Windows software. However,
the company expects that market to continue to shrink.
“There are obviously still a ton of users on Windows
Embedded and Windows Handheld, but that’s not going
to be available for long, so people are going to have to
make a decision,” London said. “For those that have
already made the decision, we see a very small [number]
of customers choosing Windows and the vast majority
moving to Android.”
—B.A.
Thomasville, N.C.-based less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier
Old Dominion Freight Line Inc. has opened its eighth
service center in Illinois, a 103-door facility located in
Montgomery. … Wonderful Real Estate has broken
ground on a 1 million-square-foot industrial building
located within Wonderful Industrial Park, a 1,625-acre
rail-served industrial development in Shafter, Calif.
The building is expected to open in March 2018. …
RK Logistics Group, a third-party logistics service provider, has expanded operations with the opening of a
new 50,000-square-foot distribution center in Fremont,
Calif. … Lift truck maker Crown Equipment Corp. has
completed construction on a second facility at its manufacturing campus in Greencastle, Ind. The new facility,
which includes space for both manufacturing and finished goods and component storage, will support the
growth of the entire Greencastle operation.
ground breakers
