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Zebra Technologies Celebrates 50 Years of Innovating at the Edge

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Zebra Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: ZBRA), an innovator at the edge of the enterprise with solutions and partners that enable businesses to gain a performance edge, celebrates its 50th anniversary as it continues to empower the front line of business. Since the inception of its first printing prototypes in the late 1960s, Zebra has evolved into a trusted advisor to its partners and customers based on its legacy of innovation to help digitally transform the enterprise.

When Zebra and its partners deliver a performance edge to front-line employees, nurses spend more time at the bedside with a patient resulting in higher quality care, and retail associates check inventory and complete transactions without leaving the shopper’s side. When Zebra integrates mobile printing and data capture solutions with cross-technology indoor location solutions, manufacturing plants and distribution centers become smarter environments in which production, fulfillment and shipping efficiencies are dramatically increased.

“We are proud to celebrate our half century milestone with our customers across the retail and ecommerce, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, healthcare, government and other industries,” said Anders Gustafsson, Chief Executive Officer, Zebra Technologies. “While Zebra has changed its stripes over the years, we are well-positioned to accelerate our strategy. With our network of specialized partners, we will continue to deliver industry-tailored solutions at the enterprise edge where there is an amazing amount of new growth and opportunities.”

Zebra marks this 50-year milestone as a result of its consistent focus on the company’s guiding principles. As digital technology transforms the edge of the enterprise, Zebra’s purpose-driven design builds in ease of use, security and ruggedness with front-line users, workplace and workflows in mind. Zebra enables customers to create smart, data-powered environments to better reflect what is happening at the edge of their operations rather than relying on traditional systems of record. And connected, collaborative mobile workflows powered by Zebra innovations allow those on the front line to optimize in-motion operations while linking together teams, assets and systems to deliver best-action guidance for business-critical decisions in real time.

Globally, Zebra boasts an impressive lineup of end-to-end products and solutions; including the popular TC5X touch computers and the LS2208 barcode scanner, as well as innovative products like the MP7000 Grocery Scanner Scale, amongst others. With over 4,400 U.S. and international patents issued and pending, Zebra has been working to heighten investment in disruptive technologies – bolstered by acquisitions in recent years that include Motorola Solutions’ Enterprise business, Xplore Technologies Corporation and Temptime Corporation.

Commemorating 50 years of innovation, this year Zebra will be introducing a new breed of products and solutions so businesses can anticipate implications and make best-action decisions based on real-time guidance. Collectively, these new products and solutions can help drive a truly unprecedented revolution in workforce mobility. Highlights include:

  • MC9300 Mobile Computers: The MC9300 enables businesses to modernize their mobile solutions to keep up with the growing demands of e-commerce while shortening training time, improving fulfillment speed and accuracy and increasing productivity by as much as 10% compared to competing devices.
  • ZQ600 Series Mobile Printers: The ZQ600 Series mobile printers are designed to print everything from shelf labels to item tags, markdown labels and sales receipts. The new printers enable peak performance for applications such as pricing management and faster checkouts in retail stores.
  • MC3330R RFID handheld reader: The MC3330R handheld RFID reader helps workers read both RFID tags and barcodes with point and shoot simplicity, and is sensitive enough to capture the most challenging of RFID tags – bringing a new level of efficiency to inventory and asset management.

“Asia Pacific is a very important region for Zebra. We anticipate strong growth owing to the rise of e-commerce, an increasingly connected workforce, and the confluence of Industry 4.0. The recent Intelligent Enterprise Index study Zebra conducted last year revealed an encouraging trend – companies in Asia Pacific are moving the needle in the deployment and investment of the Internet of Things,” said Ryan Goh, Vice-President and General Manager, Asia Pacific, Zebra Technologies. “In Asia, we are making waves in the areas of retail, transport, healthcare, logistics and manufacturing. Our momentum continues in 2019 as we pride ourselves with the broadest product portfolio of any other solutions provider in the industry.”

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Zebra celebrates its 50th anniversary by delivering a performance edge to the front line of business across retail, manufacturing, transportation, logistics, healthcare and government.
  • Zebra continues to bring to market new and improved enterprise products – like the MC9300, the ZQ600 mobile and laser printers and the MC3330R handheld RFID reader – across its portfolio with new mobile computers, printers and scanners for unrivaled manageability.
  • Zebra anticipates strong growth across Asia Pacific in 2019 thanks to the rise of e-commerce, an increasingly connected workforce, and the confluence of Industry 4.0.

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ABOUT ZEBRA

Zebra (NASDAQ: ZBRA) empowers the front line of business in retail/ecommerce, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, healthcare and other industries to achieve a performance edge. With more than 10,000 partners across 100 countries, we deliver industry-tailored, end-to-end solutions that intelligently connect people, assets and data to help our customers make business-critical decisions. Our market-leading solutions elevate the shopping experience, track and manage inventory as well as improve supply chain efficiency and patient care. Ranked on Forbes’ list of America’s Best Employers for the last four years, Zebra helps our customers capture their edge. For more information, visit www.zebra.com or sign up for our news alerts. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

APPENDIX

ADDITIONAL MILESTONES IN ZEBRA’S 50TH YEAR

  • Acquisitions:
    • In 2014, Zebra acquired Motorola Solutions’ Enterprise business and more than doubled its size from a US$1 billion company to a combined revenue of approximately US$3.5 billion
    • In 2018, Zebra completed its acquisition of Xplore Technologies Corporation, a leading developer of tablets and laptops to complement Zebra’s industry-leading enterprise mobile computing, data capture, and printing portfolios
    • In 2019, Zebra completed its acquisition of Temptime Corporation, a privately-held developer and manufacturer of temperature monitoring solutions for mission-critical applications in the healthcare industry. Financial terms of the acquisition are not being disclosed
  • Awards and recognition:
    • Zebra has been recognized by Gartner as a Visionary in the Magic Quadrant for Indoor Location Services, Globalfor the second consecutive year in 2019
    • Zebra ranked 145 among all mid-sized companies on Forbes’ 2018 list of “America’s Best Employers.” This is Zebra’s third consecutive year on the Forbes’ list. ComputerWorld placed Zebra #8 on its Best Mid-Size Places to Work in IT for 2018, and Zebra ranked #628 on the Fortune 1000 list based on its total revenue
    • For the fourth consecutive year in 2018, Zebra has received the Red Dot Award for product design and most recently earned top honors for the TC20 mobile computer and TC25 rugged smartphone
    • CRN awarded Zebra a five-star ratingin its 2018 Partner Program Guide, which annually ranks partner programs from technology vendors that provide products and services through the IT channel
    • Zebra earned two honors from Australia’s prestigious Good Design® Award® for outstanding design and innovation in the Product Design Category. These include the MC3300 mobile computer as well as the TC20 and TC25 durable mobile computers
  • Employee growth:
    • From humble beginnings of only 200 employees in 1991, Zebra has grown its global headcount by over 3,700% to 7,637 employees in 2018
  • Social responsibility:
    • Zebra supports STEM education through FIRST®(For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) sponsorship. Zebra’s Holtsville N.Y. location has sponsored many of FIRST’s robot-building teams and has employees who have mentored FIRST participants for more than 20 years

 ZEBRA and the stylized Zebra head are trademarks of Zebra Technologies Corporation, registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2019 Zebra Technologies Corporation and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

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